Official roll out ceremony KF-21 Boramae
On 9 April 2021, the Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) KF-21 Boramae (Hawk) was officially presented by the president of South Korea, Moon Jae, at the company's facility in Sacheon.
Strikingly, the aircraft was adorned with the Indonesian flag next to the South Korean flag. The Indonesian Minister of Defence, Prabowo, was attending the official roll out ceremony. The participation of Indonesia in the programme is said to be 20%, but later on unconfirmed reports said that Indonesia had withdrawn from the programme, mainly due to budgetary reasons. However, the attendance of the Indonesian minister and the Indonesian flag on the aircraft indicates the opposite.
The fighter aircaft, formerly known as the Korean Fighter eXperimental (KF-X), is designed as a 4.5-gen jet whose basic hardware and platform could be used for further development and conversion into a 5th-gen one with improved stealth" technologies.
Korean Aerospace Industries is awaiting specific details of the military so it is able to further develop Block I (developing the basic system of the fighter jet from 2016 to 2026) and Block II (adding weapons systems and military requirements from 2026 to 2028).
The first test flight is anticipated in 2022, with full scale manufacturing scheduled to begin in 2026. South Korea expects to deploy 40 jets by 2028 and 120 by 2032. With the Dae Han Min Guk Gong Gun (RoKAF, Republic of Korea Air Force), the KF-21 will replace the ageing fleet of F-4E Phantom II and F-5E/F Tiger II aircraft. However, can we still see RoKAF F-4E Phantom IIs flying in the coming 10 years?
The South Korean network MBC News, made a video recording of the roll out ceremony.
Photo: still from video MBCNews