South Korea’s New Stealth Fighters to Deploy European Meteor Missiles

In one of the most significant recent developments in South Korea’s indigenous KF-X stealth fighter program, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has provided the European defence contractor MBDA with a contract to integrate the Meteor long range air to air missile onto its new aircraft. It was previously uncertain what kind of air to air missile the KF-X would deploy, with the American AIM-120 AMRAAM highlighted as a front runner and currently widely deployed by South Korean fighter units. The Meteor will allow South Korea to diversify its air to air capabilities, and has a number of considerable advantages over the AMRAAM with a range estimated at three times that of the AIM-120C. The contract also includes technology transfers to boost South Korea’s own efforts to develop modern air to air missiles, which could equip the KF-X in future. Speaking regarding the sale, CEO of MBDA Éric Béranger stated: “We’re very pleased to mark this next and important step in our partnership with KAI and the Korean Defence Acquisition Program Administration. South Korea is a strategic market for MBDA, and we’re proud that Meteor will be providing KF-X with the world’s most potent air-to-air capability.”

The KAI-MBDA deal represents the first time the Meteor has been approved for integration onto a non-European fighter - with the partly European American-British F-35B fighter relying heavily on British technologies and components in a way the KF-X does not. Previous requests by India to integrate the Meteor onto Russian fighters were notably refused, and much of the appeal of European fighters rests heavily on the desirability of the Meteor design. With South Korea’s relations with Japan at a low point, the Meteor will provide Korean fighters with a considerable range advantage over Japanese jets such as the F-15J, F-2 and F-35A - all of which rely on the AIM-120C for long range engagements. This can somewhat compensate for the Japanese Air Force’s vast numerical superiority, deploying more than twice as many F-15s, ordering almost twice as many F-35s and set to deploy indigenous sixth generation fighters currently under development.

With neighbouring Russia deploying R-37M air to air missiles, hypersonic platforms with longer ranges and higher speeds than even the Meteor, and with these missiles speculated to have been sold to China which also deploys highly capable PL-15 missiles, the Meteor will go a long way towards bridging the gap between the engagement ranges of South Korean jets and those of its neighbours. The KF-X will deploy an indigenous derivative of the European Taurus bunker buster cruise missiles developed based largely on technology transfers, and the emergence of a Korean derivative of the Meteor to equip its entire frontline fighter fleet is also a considerable possibility.