Korea's weapons procurement agency said Monday that it will postpone a multi-billion dollar fighter jet project to next year to continue negotiations on price and other conditions.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter by Lockheed Martin, the F-15 SE Silent Eagle by Boeing and the Eurofighter by Europe's multinational defense group EADS have been bidding since last year for the 8.3 trillion won ($7.3 billion) contract to purchase 60 advanced jets.
The DAPA had initially planned to pick a bidder in October, but many pointed out there is not enough time to pick a supplier that fits its requirements within the timeline. Ahead of the Dec. 19 presidential election, it was widely expected that the project may come under the next government as negotiations with the three companies have been under way until lately.
The Defense Acquisition and Procurement Agency (DAPA) held a meeting earlier in the day to officially announce the postponement of the plan, which was approved by Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin.
"It is hard to pick a bidder for the fighter jet project by the end of this year," the DAPA spokesman Baek Yoon-hyeong said in a briefing. "We will continue to negotiate terms of conditions and technology transfer."
The DAPA said it plans to pick a winner in the first half of next year, but experts say the timing may depend on the next government as outgoing President Lee Myung-bak's term ends in February next year.
During the meeting, the arms procurement agency announced it will go ahead with importing a key part from Germany for Korea's new battle tank for the first 100 units and deploy them in March 2014.
The decision was made just one month after the state auditor urged the DAPA to conduct more tests before importing the engine and transmission, known as the "power pack," from Germany.
The tank development project was first launched in 2006 to replace the aging K-1 and the U.S.-built M48 tanks. The project costs more than 2 trillion won, including 128 billion won to create a domestic power pack.
Although the project was aimed at deploying the K-2 tanks from 2011, a series of technical problems erupted in the development stage and hindered the original plan.
Several rounds of delay forced the DAPA to rely on imported parts, at least for the first batch, but local developers took issue with the decision-making process and called for an investigation.
Wrapping up a months-long probe, the state auditor in November urged the DAPA to conduct additional tests on the German power pack under the same conditions before selecting a bidder.
"There were enough discussions about the issues pointed out by the Board of Audit and Inspection," Baek said. "We will additionally conduct tests on the imported power pack under the same conditions as the domestically-developed power pack."
Modeled after the German-developed MTU-890, the K-2 power pack is made up of a 1,500-horsepower diesel engine and transmission. Doosan Infracore and S&T Dynamics are the two main developers of the homegrown power pack and there are more than 1,000 subcontractors in South Korea involved in the project.
The new tank features an auto-loaded 120mm cannon, reaches speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour, and can cross rivers as deep as 4.1 meters, according to the DAPA. (Yonhap)