South Korean KF-21 Fighter Jet Successfully Completes First Flight

South Korea’s indigenous KF-21 fighter jet successfully completed its first test flight Tuesday setting the country on the path to compete with the F-16V and Rafale in the global market.
A KF-21 "Boramae" fighter prototype took off for its maiden flight at 3:40 p.m. at the base of South Korea’s Air Force 3rd Training Wing in the city of Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
The jet flew for 33 minutes and landed at 4:13 p.m and achieved a top speed of 400 km.
Flown by Major Ahn Jun-hyun of South Korea’s Air Force the KF-21 prototype No.1 featuring the national flags of South Korea and Indonesia indicating that it is a joint project between the two countries.
The prototype of the KF-21 fighter jet was equipped with full-scale mock-ups of four MBDA Meteor missiles and an infrared search and track system, Korea Herald reported quoting sources in the South Korean military.
South Korea’s Air Force and Korea Aerospace Industries will perform around 2,200 test flights from this month until 2026 with six KF-21 fighter prototypes.

The development of 4.5-generation fighter jets costs 8.8 trillion won ($6.7 trillion), of which Indonesia will contribute 20 percent.

South Korean companies have developed several indigenous technologies such as the AESA radar and avionics for the aircraft.

“The project of developing South Korea’s indigenous fighter jets has now entered the stage of test flights and the flight area will be expanded throughout at around 2,000 test flights,” DAPA said. Six prototypes, already manufactured will perform various aspects of the flight tests which will be completed by 2026.