South Korea Signs Agreement to Develop and Integrate New Air-to-Air Missile for KF-21 Boramae…
South Korea aims to maintain national control over all processes related to the integration, upgrading and operation of the weapon system.
As part of its air-to-air combat capability, the KF-21 fighter aircraft uses the MBDA Meteor for medium- and long-range engagements and the Diehl IRIS-T for short-range engagements.
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Hyundai Rotem have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the development of a new long-range air-to-air missile and its integration with the KF-21 fighter aircraft.
Under the program, development of the missile is planned to continue through 2033, with approximately $540 million in funding allocated.
The new missile is planned to have a range of more than 200 kilometers and a speed exceeding Mach 4. It is also planned to use a solid-fuel ducted ramjet propulsion system, allowing it to maintain thrust over a longer portion of its flight while retaining high speed and kinetic energy.
The new missile is planned to be integrated with the KF-21’s AESA radar and mission systems, providing the fighter aircraft with Beyond Visual Range (BVR) engagement capability.
BVR capability allows a fighter aircraft to detect, track and engage an opposing aircraft without the pilots having visual contact with each other…