The South Korean air force has tentatively authorised the purchase of 20 Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KO-1s, the armed variant of the KT-1 primary trainer.
KT-1 development department head Jae Myong Lee says the authorisation ensures the KT-1 production line will continue until at least 2006. KAI is completing the last of 92 KT-1s and needed orders to avoid a production gap.
The first KO-1, due to replace the country's O-2s, will be delivered in late 2005. The KO-1 is designed for forward air control and counter-insurgency missions and features an avionics suite developed by Korean conglomerate LG.
South Korea is developing a third variant of the KT-1 called the XKT-1C, which features an all-glass cockpit supplied by Canada's CMC Electronics, and which is aimed exclusively at the armed trainer export market.
Myong says KAI is building an XKT-1C prototype, which is due to fly in late 2004. KAI has developed and tested a KO-1 prototype and is ready to begin production of this variant.
Source: Flight International
