The KF-21 fighter made its first flight, but the Koreans were not excited, compared to the J-20 when it first flew out, I was fascinated by jubilation, and the Koreans seemed to be much more low-key. The reason is very simple, this so-called fifth-generation stealth fighter made in South Korea cannot be considered domestic in South Korea at all. And to be honest, the performance of this aircraft is really not good, at least compared to the F-35A, the performance is really poor.
Let's look at the composition of his subsystem first, as a fighter that South Korea claims to be domestically produced, the fuselage part of the KF-21 fighter is the overall design of the American Loma company, and Loma has also released a word, that is, directly use the fuselage technology of the F-35 fighter to make some modifications to get the KF-21 fighter, so the appearance of the two aircraft is somewhat similar. At the same time, the engine of the KF-21 fighter is the F414-GE-400K medium thrust engine developed by General Electric of the United States.
In addition, the radar of the KF-21 fighter is a modification of the EL M-2052 radar of the Israeli company ELTA, and its components are all brought by the EL M-2052 radar. The missile pylons, communication antennas, and fuel and oxygen supply systems of the KF-21 fighter are all provided by the British Cobham Company, the airborne instrument equipment is provided by the Curtis Company of the United States, the ejection seats are provided by the British Martin Baker Company, the cockpit canopy is provided by the American Texstars Company, the fire control system, flight display, and landing gear system are provided by the British Mejeet Company, and even the mounted targeting pods, jammers, IRST, and other equipment are provided by the American Loma Company.
In other words, I am afraid that except for some of the fuselage parts of this aircraft that are developed and manufactured by South Korea itself, the rest of the aircraft are all designed and manufactured by European and American companies, and even the entire design of the aircraft is completed abroad. Paid by South Korea, a global carnival, that's all.
In addition to not being considered domestic, the performance of this aircraft is also very ordinary. For example, he does not have a built-in magazine. You must know that the J-20, FC-31, F-35, Su-57, F-22 and other active fifth-generation fighters all have built-in magazines, and even the AMCA fighters drawn on the drawings in India also have built-in magazines, but South Korea's so-called fifth-generation stealth fighters are full of external pylons and have no built-in magazines. At most, there are 4 semi-buried pylons in the abdomen, which are not new, and the stealth effect is very average.
In addition to not having a built-in magazine, his engine technology is also poor, two F-414 engines, can bring up to 18 tons of thrust, which is the same as the thrust of one F-135 engine of the American F-35A fighter, the problem is that the F-35 fighter has 1 engine, but the KF-21 needs 2 engines, and from the point of view of thrust-to-weight ratio and cost performance, the F-35 is much stronger than the KF-21. Moreover, from the perspective of later support, the support pressure of 1 engine is definitely smaller than that of 2 engines, and the failure rate is lower.
Moreover, in addition to the limited stealth performance, the KF-21 fighter has not reached the level of fifth-generation fighters such as F-35, Su-57, and J-20 in terms of supersonic performance and battlefield situational awareness, and can at most be close to the old F-22A fighter, so he is simply not a standard fifth-generation fighter. Of course, due to the stealth design and the long-range engagement ability, the KF-21 can still outperform most 4th and 4th generation and semi-generation fighters, but it does not achieve close to and surpass typical fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-35.
Therefore, the Koreans are naturally not happy about such an aircraft, at most they just pay attention to it, and there is no big deal. Unless, this aircraft can be the same as our J-20, from radar to engine, from the fuselage to the cockpit system, from communication to flight control, all of which are domestic, perhaps, the South Koreans can be happy, of course, this is still too difficult for South Korea, a medium-sized country.