The South Korean Air Force said on Dec. 1 that an F-35A Lightning II** fighter jet had been decommissioned early after it hit an eagle during a flight last year and was assessed to be severely damaged and repaired.
The South Korean Air Force said that after a comprehensive assessment with Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the F-35 fighter jet, about 300 parts of the F-35A fighter were damaged, involving the fuselage structure, engines, control and navigation systems.
On January 4 last year, the fighter took off from the Cheongju base for a training mission. After the collision between an eagle and the fighter, it was sucked into the left air intake, and the landing gear hydraulic pipeline, part of the circuit and other equipment were damaged, resulting in the landing gear could not be put down, and the fighter had to make an emergency landing at the Seosan base in the form of belly landing, and the pilot was not injured. This incident led to the grounding of all South Korean F-35A fighters for a time.
The South Korean Air Force initially said that the damage to the fighter was not significant, but later found that the damage was severe. Taking into account the high cost and long time to repair this ** fighter, as well as other safety considerations, the evaluation committee set up by the Air Force finally concluded that it is better to retire the aircraft than to repair it. The proposal will be finalized after approval by the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Korea.
Yonhap News Agency quoted South Korean news sources as reporting that if the F-35A fighter is to be repaired, it is estimated that it will cost about 140 billion won (about 1.).$7.6 billion), while the unit price for the purchase of these ** fighters is 110 billion won (about $84 million).
The ROK Air Force is armed with 40 F-35A fighters. The military considered allowing the damaged fighter to "exert its residual heat" after it was decommissioned, for example, for the training of ground mechanics.
*:Xinhua.