T-50 Jet 'Overbuilt' for Its Own Good

There are more reasons than meet the eye for last month's bidding failure of the T-50 Golden Eagle, Korea's advanced trainer jet, chief of which is its price policy shortcoming, experts say.Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), Korea's only aerospace firm, lost in a competition to supply next-generation military jet trainers to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Middle Eastern country selected the M-346, by Italy's Alenia Aermacchi, as the preferred aircraft in the $1.3 billion deal, which included the building of 48 jets.``Although the UAE acknowledged the T-50 has remarkably high quality, the country apparently put more value on cooperative projects in the aerospace industry that the Italian side pledged,'' the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a statement, which also pointed out a disadvantage in price. A T-50 jet's flyaway cost is set at 20 billion won to 25 billion won ($13.5 - $16.9 million), while the M-346 costs 18 billion won to 20 billion won.

KAI said superiority in quality led to the higher price. The T-50's engine generates 1.4 times more power than the M-346, and the jet trainer's Mach 1.5 speed is superior to the Mach 0.9 of its Italian rival, according to the company. A military expert claimed, however, that overly high quality led to failure in the end in a false effort to cram too much into a product that didn't need to be equipped with state-of-the-art features.``It's just like trying to sell a Lamborghini to a driving school,'' military expert Kim Seong-jeon said. ``The market for trainer jets can't be a luxury market. Even its supersonic speed doesn't give it a critical edge because it's not pivotal for advanced trainer jets.'' Supersonic flights are not necessary in an advanced flight-training program, he added. The core elements of the course consist of in-air operation, take-off and landing, and blind flying. Manufacturing of supersonic trainer jets ends in a steep surge of its prime cost due to the superfluous features, according to the former wing commander, and this makes it non-price competitive.

"The price gap between the two jets per unit makes a huge difference,'' Kim said. ``Some might say the government didn't give KAI enough support, but it makes no sense to blame it on a lack of marketing and other support as long as the product has a basic price problem.''All of its problems trace back to its origins. The T-50's development originally started as a domestic supply scheme for the Korean Air Force, which strongly opposed the plan first because of small demand. The Korean Air Force needs 50 trainer jets at most, and the interval between each procurement could be long, as they can be in use for over 40 years. Consequently, export emerged as the solution to keep the project going.

Advocates of the T-50 say once it blazes the selling trail, in spite of the price, there will be more opportunities in the global market. An industry source, however, said on condition of anonymity that kind of logic ``could apply to the auto industry, where mass production is possible, but it's highly unlikely for trainer jets.'' ``The overall size of the defense industry is shrinking across the world and trainer jets take up a very small and limited share of it. At the end of the day, Korea can't expect to export the T-50 in large quantities,'' he said.

Posted in: Singapore,Training aircraft,UAE