Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) announced that it has won a contract worth 1.2 trillion won (US$920 million) for the procurement of 18 FA-50 Fighting Eagle light attack fighter jets to Malaysia. KAI signed a contract with the Malaysian Ministry of Defense after beating several competitors in the Light Attack Aircraft (LCA) program.
Quoted from The Korea Times – koreatimes.co.kr (24/3/2023), among the competitors that were defeated by the FA-50 were Tejas from India, JF-17 Thunder from Pakistan, Yakolev Yak-130 from Russia and Hurizet from Turkey.
This achievement is KAI's latest expansion in the Southeast Asian market, after the T-50/FA-50 fighter jet family is used by Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
At Malaysia's request, KAI will modify the FA-50 by adding an air refueling system and increasing its weapons capacity. KAI officials said that the target for the delivery of the initial FA-50 order for Malaysia would be carried out starting in 2026.
Malaysia announced that at least half of the payments will be made in the form of palm oil barter. KAI also said that Malaysia was considering buying 18 more FA-50 units as an additional order.
The Malaysian Air Force's requirements for the tender are phased delivery within 36 months after signing the contract, the ability for air refueling, as well as equipping it with beyond visual range air-to-air missiles.
Two other requirements are being able to fly at supersonic speed and the possibility of cooperation with local industry. The final condition is the obligation that 30 percent of the aircraft's spare parts (FA-50) be produced locally by Malaysian companies.
Referring to NATO standards, the FA-50 is relatively flexible to be loaded with a variety of missiles and bombs. In general the FA-50 can carry a weapons load of up to 4.5 tons.
Its weapon formulation is not much different from the F-16 Fighting Falcon, such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile, AGM-65 Maverick, GBU-38 / B Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM), CBU-105 Sensor Fused Weapon (SFW), Mk82 Low Drag General Purpose (LDGP) bombs, Cluster Bomb Unit (CBU), and LAU-3 Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets (FFAR) rocket launchers. Not to forget, the FA-50 also carries an internal 20mm Gatling M197 model canon.
The sensor mix in the FA-50 can be said to be quite good for the light fighter jet class, such as the Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System (INS/GPS), integrated mission computer, identification friend or foe (IFF), radar altimeter, multimode radar, store management system, UHF/VHF radio, tactical data link, data transfer and recording system, Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) and Counter Measure Dispensing System (CMDS).
The FA-50 is powered by a single General Electric F404-GE-102 turbofan engine. Engine performance is controlled by a dual-channel Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system. The FA-50 can carry an additional 568 liters of fuel in external fuel tanks. The FA-50, whose development involves Lockheed Martin, can reach a maximum speed of 1,837 km per hour (Mach 1.5).
Last year, KAI signed a contract to supply 48 FA-50s to Poland. In 2022, KAI's sales jumped to 2.78 trillion won from 2.56 trillion won the previous year.
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