BY : hani.co.k


South Korea's F-15K Slam Eagle fighter jets are operating normally and the country's plan to introduce more aircraft from Boeing Co. remains on track despite the U.S. grounding of its F-15 planes, Air Force and company officials said Thursday.

The U.S. Air Force has grounded all of its F-15 fighter jets because of worries over a possible structural failure of the model after a plane crash in Missouri early this month.

"The F-15Ks here are in normal service," South Korean Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Moon Chae-wook said.


He said the U.S. Air Force confirmed there are no mechanical hitches in the F-15K, an upgrade of the U.S. F-15 jets.

In 2002, South Korea signed a contract with Boeing Co. to purchase 40 F-15 jets. Twenty-seven of them have been delivered so far with three more due to arrive here by the end of this year.

The rest will be delivered next year.

Boeing officials also said that the company will provide South Korea with the aircraft as scheduled.

"The current precautionary grounding of U.S. Air Force F-15s does not impact new F-15K aircraft on the production line in St.

Louis," Paul Lewis, Boeing's international communication director told Yonhap News Agency by e-mail.

He talked about Boeing's push for another fighter jet sale contract.

Boeing is in price negotiations with South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Agency (DAPA) for 20 more fighter jets equivalent to the F-15K from 2010-2012. The DAPA plans to conclude the deal by early next year.

"Negotiations with the DAPA on the next 20 F-15ks continue as scheduled and we are confident they will be successfully concluded soon," Lewis said.

DAPA officials, however, refused to elaborate on whether the F-15 mishap in the U.S. will affect the acquisition program.

"It is not appropriate to talk about it at this moment," the agency's spokesman Maj. Park Seong-soo said.

In the meantime, South Korea revealed its plan last month to purchase from 2014 to 2019 about 60 fifth-generation stealth fighter jets such as the F-22 and F-35 of Lockheed Martin.