South Korea to buy 20 F-35Bs under phase 2 of FX III

Media reports from South Korea says Seoul has decided that it will buy 20 F-35B stealth fighters for the phase 2 of its FX III fighter program.

Sgt. 1st Class MilagrosLaura Laura [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The country bought 40 F-35A fighters under phase of the FX III. The original plan was to buy another 20 A models so that the Air Force could replace its aging F-4 and F-5 fighters with 60 F-35As. This plan is now disrupted as the new F-35Bs are slated to operate from a new aircraft carrier that Seoul intends to commission into service in the next decade.

Last year, it was reported that the country is studying two aircraft carrier designs, one is a 70,000 ton design that can carry 32 fighters along with 8 helicopters while the second design is 40,000 ton carrying 12 fighters and 8 helicopters. However, these two designs uses the Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) approach. The move to buy the F-35B could signal that the country is leaning towards the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) configuration that is employed by Britain, Italy and Spain for their carriers

Photo: Choi Jae-sung’s office