BRENDAN SOBIE / SINGAPORE
Manufacturing partner claims move from USA offers better business case
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Lockheed Martin are discussing moving wing production for the T-50 Golden Eagle lead-in fighter trainer from the USA to South Korea in a bid to lower the procurement cost for the initial batch.
Loss of the wing would result in the US manufacturer's workshare on the T-50 dropping below the currently planned and agreed 20%. "Lockheed Martin and KAI are working on all aspects of the production contract to find where the work can be done that offers the best value for the programme," says Lockheed Martin.
As the chief subcontractor, Lockheed Martin has developed the T-50's avionics system, flight control system and wings. It had been tasked with manufacturing the wings and helping to integrate the avionics for Korean-ordered aircraft, but industry officials say KAI has determined that manufacturing the wings in South Korea makes a better business case. The two are also partners in marketing the aircraft internationally and are banking on South Korea's initial order to boost sales.
KAI hopes Lockheed Martin will agree to the revised arrangement in the next few weeks so it can be wrapped into the initial production plan. Its initial production authorisation will include the first 25 of 94 planned trainers, approval for which needs to be secured in the third quarter for first delivery to occur in late 2005 as scheduled.
In addition, KAI must complete 151 sorties and add two aircraft to the flight test programme before the start of initial production at the end of May. To date 120 sorties have been flown with two prototypes. The first two lead-in fighter prototypes will join the flight-test programme in August. The four test aircraft collectively are expected to rack up 11,000 sorties by 2005.
KAI has the capacity to deliver T-50s to export customers as early as 2005 and turn out as many as five aircraft a month, compared with the initial production rate of 1.5 a month.
Source: Flight International
