Boeing Close To Be Chosen For $7.4 Billion F-X Program

South Korea’s multibillion-dollar Fighter program will see the final bidder picked by mid-September, and the candidate likely to be chosen is Boeing’s F-15, as its competitors have effectively been priced out of the contest.

Lockheed Martin and Eurofighter, which vied for the US $7.4 billion fighter contract, failed to submit proposals below the budget.

“The bottom line is that we can’t sign a final contract with any bidder offering a proposal over the budget,” Oh Tae-shik, head of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s (DAPA’s) program management bureau, said last week to the local reporters.

The U.S. government failed to submit a proposal below the budget for the sale of 60 F-35 joint strike fighters built by Lockheed Martin.

And Eurofighter promised that it would modify 15 of 60 Typhoon jets into twin-seat aircraft at the request of the DAPA. In the final proposal, however, the European firm changed the number of twin-seat modification work to only six, apparently in order to lower the total price under $7.4 billion, the DAPA spokesperson was quoted by Defense News recently.

EADS also changed conditions regarding the costs of weapons integration, the spokesman added, without specifying what armament integration it was.

Eurofighter officials rebut DAPA claims saying that “We have repeatedly explained to DAPA why there was no operational rationale to opt for the number of twin-seaters requested to Eurofighter,” said Christian Scherer, Eurofighter’s chief sales officer was quoted by Defense News.

Despite Eurofighter’s appeal, DAPA has reconfirmed that the Typhoon is not qualified for final evaluations.

Meanwhile, Boeing has won the two previous F-X deals to supply the Air Force with 60 F-15Ks. And with this new South Korea’s F-X fighter jet acquisition project win would be an add on to it.

The F-X aims to acquire 120 new high-end warplanes to replace the older fleet of F-4s and F-5s flown by the Republic of Korea Air Force.