I don’t think anyone can really say that F-15K is in the “next generation” plane category. But I don’t think Korea really was looking to get a “next generation” plane—they wanted to get a current generation plane pronto. If they buy the Eurofigher, God only knows when they will actually receive them—and God only knows if it will actually perform. The price was also probably scary. Rafael is nice plane to have in the competition to get the F-15 prices lower, but South Korea probably don’t need that kind of plane anyway. Realistically, with US airforce hovering around the neighborhood, ROK military people probably assumed that they don’t really need a fighter, they need something that can bomb.

Sometimes I wonder if ROK keeps the F-4s and F-5s just to keep the civvies like me feel safe everytime I look at the North vs South quantity vs quality comparison.

It has been a very long time since I was into military planes, and that was just in high school, but I did pick up some info out in the public domain back when I was looking into the F-15K Selection Drama and its anti-US kick.

Of course, you had all sides saying their plane was best and what not, and different non-Korean experts (who didn’t have the huge anti-US issues to deal with (whether they were for the US or not) saying different things —- but I remember one of them talking about either the French plane or the Eurofighter — saying that most of the “better than the F-15″ talk used as a crutch a big study done —- on the planes design - before it was built —- and that since that study, some of the systems and capabilities had been dropped due to costs and changing geopolitical circumstances.

So - again - is the Eurofighter really a proven plane better than the F-15s of today? I’d really like to have a good idea of the yes or no of this…

Anyway, I was thinking of the F-4 before Nomad mentioned it.

I also wonder out of curiosity if — the fleet of F-4s (and the pilots and servicing and all that) South Korea puts out would be a match for North Korea’s air force and air defenses?

The F-4 has been a work-horse of a plane for a long, long time, and I would imagine, if the airframes aren’t falling apart, they would still be a match - in a nation that has the resources to train and maintain them - against most other nations of the world —- who aren’t like the US, Western Europe, Russia, China, Japan - and any other rich industrialized nations — in keeping their militaries up to date and trained.

But I’m not sure on that — just guessing….

For example — could we imagine South Korea’s air force of today in - say - battle over Kosovo? How would it have measured up? Or, if South Korea went to war with - say - Brazil? How would the F-4s and the South Korean service hold up?

Or against NK?

christ, that was awesome!

The South Korean media revealed earlier in the week that the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) is considering the F-35 Lightning II as an alternative to the F-15K Slam Eagle. The ROKAF’s order of 40 F-15K’s are expected to…

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54667

“Which is why, I and many others propose, sales of F-22 and F-35 aircraft should be limited to the core allies of the United States (Japan, the UK, Canada, Australia) and not to unreliable countries like Korea.”

I agree with this, but seeing that the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, Norway, and Denmark (in addition to the US, UK, Australia, and Canada) helped foot the bill for development, I guess they have to be offered the option to buy F-35s as well.

It seems a little premature for Korea to be suggesting that they may buy some of these. Has anyone even offered to sell them any in the first place?

If they had participated in development, I would feel more confident in such a sale. To be fair, I am surprised that Japan didn’t participate in development either.

Knowing Korean politics, the pressure will be for domestic developement. Last time Korea talked about getting some Uber US weapons like the F-18, they just opted to get more F-16, so they might decide that it’s just cheaper and faster to pump out more F-15K. It’s not like the Korean F-16 can’t do the job. They don’t really need this. They are already wasting money on AEGIS for a blue water navy that will NOT be joing US in police actions around the world.

The conspiracy side of me makes me believe that there is more to the eye to the “trainers” that are the golden eagles. US arms dealers will probably sell if ROK waves money.