Known as a crucial equipment to stealth fighters, the AESA radar allows aircraft to remain stealthy by sending out signals that are spread out across a band of frequencies and are difficult to detect over background noise. It also allows the fighters to engage in electronic warfare by evading enemy‘s radar detection.

AESA will undergo five years of flight tests from 2022 and 2026 by mounting it onto a prototype fighter jet for Korean Fighter Experimental program, or KF-X, whose development is scheduled to be finished in 2026, according to DAPA.

The 18.1 trillion won ($15.7 billion) KF-X project seeks to produce 120 fighter jets with domestic technology and deploy them at the South Korean Air Force by 2032. They will replace the older F-4 and F-5 jets currently in service.

South Korea launched the project to develop its own AESA radar system after the US refused to transfer core technologies to be applied to the KF-X jets in 2015. The technologies included the AESA radar, radio frequency jammer, electronic optics targeting pod, and infrared search and track system.

DAPA signed a 40 billion won deal with Israeli contractor Elta Systems for technical support on the radar’s transmitting and receiving devices and among others.

DAPA reiterated that although it would receive “technical support” from overseas contractors, the core hardware and software -- such as algorithms for missile detection capabilities and radar-evading system -- would be developed on its own.

“Throughout the process, there would be certain phases where we get technical support, if necessary. But there will be no overseas involvement when we mount the radar on KF-X fighters for a flight test,” DAPA official said. 

By Yeo Jun-suk jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com">@heraldcorp.com)







By Yeo Jun-suk  (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)