
South Korea continues to work on the creation of the latest KF-21 Boramae fighter, named as an analogue and competitor of the Russian Su-75 Checkmate fighter. To date, developers from the aircraft manufacturer KAI (Korean Aerospace Industries) are at the stage of flight tests, which involve three prototypes.
First flown in late July 2022, the KF-21 Boramae reached supersonic speed for the first time during a test flight on January 17, 2023. According to the Defense Procurement Program Administration (DAPA), achieving supersonic speed by the prototype means the completion of one of the key stages of testing. However, it is planned to complete the tests by February 2026, in total, six prototypes will be involved in them.
The tests of the aircraft, like the previous ones, took place at the factory airfield of the KAI (Korean Aerospace Industries) Corporation Sacheon in the city of Jinju. The first prototype of the fighter, which took off into the sky, spent 56 minutes in the air, reaching a speed of Mach 1 or 1224 km / h at an altitude of 12 meters.
The South Korean fighter KF-21 Boramae belongs to the 4++ generation. With a maximum takeoff weight of 25 kg, it can carry 600 kg of payload on 7700 suspension points. It is stated that the fighter will receive a radar with AFAR and will be produced in both single and double versions. To date, it is positioned as an analogue and competitor of the fifth-generation single-engine fighter Su-10 Checkmate being developed in Russia.
Although it is stated that work on the KF-21 started in 2016, it was first announced back in 2001, and Indonesia joined the program in 2010. It is planned that by the beginning of the 2030s, the Republic of Korea Air Force will receive about 120 KF-21 Boramae fighters. The new fighters will replace the outdated F-4 Phantom II and F-5 Freedom Fighter/Tiger II.