Commentary
There were two interesting side-by-side headlines in a recent military trade journal, Defense News. The first read “South Korea records successful maiden flight test of its KF-21 fighter jet.” The second, by the same author, read “South Korea to buy 20 more F-35s.”
So the Republic of Korea (ROK) is both developing an indigenous fighter jet and buying American-made F-35 combat aircraft? The reason has as much to do with ego and ambition as it does with building a modern force to defend the ROK against North Korea and China.
The KF-21 “Boramae” (roughly translated, “young hawk” or “fighting hawk”) started out about a dozen years ago as the KF-X. The KF-21 is an impressive fighter jet, especially for a country that until quite recently only produced foreign-developed fighters under license (such as the F-16). It features a stealthy design, an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, and other advanced avionics….