South Korea will receive first batch of F-35 by 2018.
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $7 million contract for providing the multispectral database for the upcoming delivery to South Korea of 40 F-35A Lightening II stealth fighters with conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) capability.
The contract was awarded Aug. 23 by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) under the Foreign Military Sales program. The US Naval Air Systems Command in Maryland will handle the contract.
The 40 F-35A CTOL fighters were released to South Korea in March 2013 for $7.06 billion. Then in May, the DSCA released $793 million of arms in support of the F-35, including 274 AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, 530 Joint Directed Attack Munitions (JDAM), 154 AIM-9X-2 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and 530 “Bunker Buster” BLU-109 2000LB Penetrators equipped with JDAM.
The DSCA originally released 60 CTOL fighters for $10.8 billion, but South Korea reduced the number to 40 for budgetary reasons. The fifth-generation F-35A beat the fourth-generation Boeing F-15 Silent Eagle and the EADS Eurofighter Typhoon for South Korea’s F-X fighter competition.
South Korea joined Israel and Japan, who selected the F-35A in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Lockheed will begin deliveries of the F-35A in the 2018-2021 time frame.
https://www.facebook.com/TejasMrca/photos?ref=page_internal