The first of 40 F-35A Lightning IIs that are being built for South Korea made its public debut March 28 during a rollout ceremony at Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] fighter jet plant in Fort Worth, Texas.
The conventional-takeoff-and-landing variant will be sent to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, where Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) pilots and maintainers will start training on the jet.
South Korean defense officials said they are eager to begin fielding the new fifth-generation, multi-role aircraft to enhance the protection of their country’s airspace and boost support for ground operations.
“The capabilities that the F-35 brings to the table, with its outstanding stealth technology and the latest avionics, will dramatically improve and transform our air force’s operational concepts,” said ROKAF Chief of Staff Gen. Lee Wang-Keun.
Five more South Korean F-35As are slated for delivery this year. Lightning IIs are scheduled to begin arriving at Cheongju Air Base in South Korea in 2019.
In September 2014, South Korea signed an agreement to buy the F-35A. Lockheed Martin has so far delivered a total of more than 280 F-35s to the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy and foreign forces.
The F-35, which is designed to fuse and share large amounts of sensor information, “will enable the South Korean forces to operate side by side with our U.S. forces in protecting” South Korea, said Navy Vice Adm. Mat Winter, the F-35 program executive officer.
During the rollout ceremony, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) alluded to a letter that he and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) recently sent to President Donald Trump urging him to consider selling the F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant to Taiwan.
The F-35B would “have a positive impact on Taiwan’s self-defense and would act as a necessary deterrent to China’s aggressive military posture across the Asia-Pacific region,” the March 26 letter says.
Another ceremony speaker, Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas), touted the T-50A, which Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) are offering for the U.S. Air Force’s T-X trainer jet program. He said that commonality between the U.S. Air Force’s F-35A and the T-50A is a key selling point.
“Because the T-50 and the F-35 have similar cockpits, U.S. pilots could step from the T-50 directly to the F-35 in a seamless, fifth-gen, cockpit-training program, meaning we will have better-trained pilots in shorter time for less money,” Veasey said.
A T-X contract award is expected in July. The T-50A is competing against a new design offered by a Boeing [BA]-Saab team and the T-100 proposed by Leonardo DRS.
Other U.S. officials attending the ceremony included Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord; Heidi Grant, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs; and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel.