South Korea Resumes Fighter Jet Bidding

South Korea’s defense procurement agency the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) today announced that it will continue to accept bids from Boeing, Eurofighter and Lockheed Martin in August.

The three finalists are currently competing to supply 60 fighter jets worth $7.2 billion. DAPA announced its decision to reopen the competition three weeks after temporarily suspending them due to the competitors' expensive price tags.

Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle, Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth jet and the Eurofighter Tranche 3 Typhoon from the European Aerospace Defense and Space Company (EADS) participated in the 55 bidding sessions from June 18 to July 5 to win Seoul's largest arms import deal, but the procedure was put on hold due to the offers beyond Seoul's budget, according to Yonhap news agency.

"DAPA decided to resume the bidding after taking all alternatives into consideration," DAPA spokesman Baek Yoon-hyeong said in a briefing. "There was a consensus that resuming the bidding under the same condition as the last one is the best option for national interest at this point."

The procurement agency plans to resume the bidding in mid-August, but no specific date has been determined, he said.

If the extended bidding session doesn't produce a satisfactory outcome, DAPA said it will reexamine the project and make alterations to the plan.

"If no company offers a proposal within the budget, even after the bidding resumes, (DAPA) will restart the project from the beginning by revising the number of jets or increasing the budget," Baek said.

DAPA has sought to purchase affordable yet highly capable aircraft, but it had been widely expected that potential suppliers would propose prices that would exceed Seoul's budget.

Unlike two other companies that sell aircraft through direct commercial sales, the U.S. government representative placed the bid for F-35s on behalf of Lockheed Martin under the foreign military sales (FMS) program, which didn't specify a fixed price, according to Yonhap.