Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

Signing contract for the next fighter during the third quarter of this year

 
Joint R&D for unmanned robot by relevant department starts next month
 

 
 
DAPA (Defense Acquisition Program Administration) will make a contract for the next fighter (FX) during the third quarter of this year and start the system development of KFX (Korean Fighter Program) in November and December. Also, starting next March, it is also going to carry forward R&D for an unmanned robot with other relevant departments.

DAPA revealed the Plans of 2014 Main Policy in the 322nd provisional session of the National Assembly Defense Committee Work Report on February 19.

The budget for the year of DAPA is 14 trillion and 374.7 billion won, accounting for 40.3 percent of total national defense expenditure and it will work on 202 projects in total including 67 R&D businesses, such as KFX and Aegis destroyer, 63 purchasing projects of the next fighter and aerial tanker, and 72 mass production projects including the next multiple Korean mobile helicopter.

For the FX project, it will begin adjusting total working expenses and purchasing plans next month. The proper amount of the total cost for the project will be reflected through discussion with the Ministry of Strategy and Finance based on the re-examination result of project feasibility from KIDA (Korean Institute for Defense Analysis). DAPA will finalize the testing and evaluation and the agreement by June.

Meanwhile, DAPA will submit the basic system development plan of the KFX project to the defense acquisition program committee in March and give public notice of a bid for selecting a charging enterprise for the system development in April to May. Finally, it will move forward with it from November after the establishment of action plans for it during October.

For the overseas cooperation of the KFX project, DAPA will discuss expense and workload sharing and project structure, and make a basic agreement regarding the system development with the Indonesian government.

It is also going to not only cooperate with relevant government departments including MOTIE, MSIP and MOF for expansion of an unmanned robot project but also start to build a test site for testing and evaluation for developed technology.

In addition, DAPA will carry out other projects as well this year, such as enhancement of quality control of military supplies, improvement of defense R&D capabilities, support for the growth of small and medium defense enterprises, establishment of the basis for continuous export growth, improvement of impartiality in the contract system, and spread of a "clean hands" culture in the defense business.

By Chul-Hwan, Kim < droid001@dema.mil.kr >
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