Korea’s T-50 Family Spreads Its Wings

Korea’s defense industry is advancing on all fronts these days. On the armored vehicle front, vehicles like the XK2 tank and K9/K10 self propelled howitzer are beginning to win export orders, and its XK-21/KNIFV amphibious infantry fighting vehicle may not be too far behind. All fill key market niches, promising performance at a comparatively inexpensive price. Its shipbuilding industry, one of the world’s busiest, is beginning to turn out LHDs, and December 2008 saw its first-of-class KDX-III AEGIS destroyer accepted into service on time and on budget. Now its aerospace industry is in flight abroad with the already-exported KT-1 trainer. Not to mention a clever entry into the global trainer and light fighter markets.
Enter the T-50 Golden Eagle family, which offers a supersonic high-end trainer and lightweight fighter aircraft at an attractive price. The aircraft is hitting the international market just as many of the world’s jet training fleets are reaching ages of 30 years or more, and high-end fighters are pricing themselves out of reach for many countries. The TA-50 LIFT variant and FA-50 lightweight fighter are especially attractive as lightweight export fighters, and the ROKAF’s own F-5E/F Tiger II and F-4 Phantom fighters are more than due for replacement. Now the key question for the platform is whether it can find corresponding export sales…

• T/F/A-50: The Planes
• T/F/A-50: The Program [updated]
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings

T/F/A-50: The Planes

T-50, 3-view
(click to view full)

The T-50 was developed by Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd., with cooperation and global marketing support from Lockheed Martin. Both firms were aware that many training aircraft fleets are aging, even as higher-performance fighters demand trainer aircraft that can keep up. The Korean government needed a fleet of trainers, and saw an opportunity to give their aerospace sector a strong boost in the process. Total investment in the T-50’s RDT&E program amounted to more than $2 billion: 70% from the Korean government, 17% from KAI, and 13% from Lockheed Martin.
With a length of 43 feet and a wingspan of 30 feet, the 2-seat T-50 is about 4 feet shorter than the F-16; overall, it’s only about 80% of the F-16’s size. The relative size of the control surfaces and tails are larger, however, to improve handling characteristics at lower speeds and make the aircraft easier to land. Larger landing gear is also fitted, to absorb harder landings, which is to be expected from student pilots. Its form’s resemblances to Lockheed Martin’s F-16 are suggestive, and include the blended mid-set wing, complete with leading-edge root extensions and rear ‘shelf’ fairings ending in F-16-style split airbrakes. The air intake layout on the sides is somewhat similar to the F/A-18 Hornet or Northrop’s excellent but ill-fated F-20A Tigershark, and the aircraft is powered by the same engine: GE’s popular, reliable and fuel-efficient F404, with slight improvements over the F404-GE-402 to enhance single-engine redundancy and reliability.
The T-50 trainer carries a basic navigation / attack system, which gives it some multi-role capability. The aircraft can carry Sidewinder missiles on the wingtips, as well as fuel, rockets, or qualified bombs on its 5 underwing and center pylons. the center pylon and 2 inner underwing pylons are “wet,” and can accommodate 150 gallon fuel drop tanks.
The T-50 family’s empty weight is 14,000 pounds, and maximum takeoff gross weight is 29,700 pounds; the F404-GE-102 engine produces 17,700 pounds of thrust. Maximum rate of climb is 39,000 feet per minute; and the maximum speed is Mach 1.5. Service ceiling is 48,500 feet, the design load factor is 8gs, and the trainer airframe is designed for up to 10,000-hour service life (8,344 hours for the A-50).

T-50 cockpit
(click to view full)

Still, the plane is designed to be a trainer, with better rear visibility than a 2-seat F-16. An “active stick” ensures that stick movements in the front or rear are transmitted to the stick in the other seat, to improve monitoring and learning. Embedded training features, in-flight recording and post-mission debriefing capability are all built in. The standard tools of a modern fighter pilot’s trade are likewise present: “glass cockpit” of digital screens, HUD (Head Up Displays), HOTAS (Hands On Stick And Throttle) control systems to keep everything at the pilot’s fingertips, triple-redundant electrical system, fly-by-wire, advanced radio and navigation systems including INS/GPS, and a Martin-Baker zero-zero ejection seat. The seat back angle is 17 degrees – similar to the seat angles of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the F/A-22.
Per the standards for modern trainers, the aircraft is part of a larger, integrated training system that includes simulators, computer-based training, cockpit and maintenance trainers, and a training management system.
Maintenance has also received careful thought. The new trainer’s airframe will require no mandatory depot maintenance, and the aircraft boasts a “single-tier design” with some 250 access panels allowing technicians to get at any major system without having to remove any others. Extensive self-diagnostics will help keep maintenance costs down.
All in all, the T-50 may remind some people of the F-16 that was originally designed by the “Fighter Mafia” back in the 1970s, when they were busy breaking every big-jet, multi-role, high-priced rule the USAF had cultivated for over a decade. Its thrust/weight ratio ensures that it’s no F-16; even so, 25 years after the F-16 was entering service, it retains one more comparison point: a similar price point in absolute dollars. A $20 million price point in the modern era places it firmly on the high end for a trainer, but its supersonic performance and versatility could still make the T-50 very popular indeed.
Key market competitors include the subsonic BAE Hawk, Aermacchi’s now-supersonic M346, and its Russian twin the Yak-130.

T/A-50 LIFT
(click to view larger)

At present, 3 variants of the T-50 are planned, beyond the basic T-50 trainer aircraft.
One is the T-50B aerobatic variant, which has replaced the ancient A-37 Dragonflys flown by South Korea’s “Black Eagles” national aerobatic team.
The 2nd is the TA-50 lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT) variant. It adds Lockheed Martin’s AN/APG-67v4 multi-mode radar, derived from the radar that equipped Northrop’s F-20 Tigershark. It also has provisions for radar warning receivers and specialty pods, sports a 3-barreled M61 20mm cannon, and can carry Sidewinder air-air missiles, rocket pods, AGM-65 Maverick missiles, and Mk80 family bombs. If the specialty pods have surveillance and targeting capabilities, it is likely that laser-guided bombs and rockets could be added to their arsenal.
A slightly more expensive variant called the F/A-50 will be fitted for the lightweight fighter and light attack roles, and can also serve in the lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT) role alongside the TA-50. It will have a wider range of equipment, but is hobbled by a key limitation.
The F/A-50 is also a joint KAI/ Lockheed Martin project, and the associated agreements includes a number of restrictive terms. One is that Lockheed will not transfer aircraft source code to other nations. Another is that the T-50’s capabilities cannot exceed Korea’s F-16s, though proposals to give the KF-16s AESA radar retrofits could break that logjam. A 3rd provision banned South Korea from integrating T-50 variants with non-U.S. technology that the United States doesn’t have.
Instead of Selex Galileo UK’s Vixen 500E AESA radar, therefore, the first F/A-50s will use IAI’s popular EL/M-2032 multi-mode radar, installed by Lockheed Martin. It will be coupled to additional datalinks like Link-16, a weapons management system, radar warning receivers, and a MIL-STD-1760 databus. FA-50s will also be able to carry additional electronic countermeasures equipment, and specialty pods like LITENING or Sniper ATP for targeting, surveillance, etc. Weapons will include the same lightweight 3-barreled M61 20mm gun, AIM-9 Sidewinder air-air missiles, rockets, Mk80 family bombs, and AGM-65 Maverick missiles carried by the TA-50. The enhanced radar, databus, and related systems will expand the FA-50’s range of potential weapons by adding the ability to carry GPS-guided weapons like JDAM bombs, WCMD/SFW cluster bombs, JSOW glide bombs, etc. They’re also likely to enable the addition of AIM-120 AMRAAM air-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, and other advanced armaments.
Any FA-50 exports to Arab countries would have to use the AN/APG-67v4 radar and Sniper-SE surveillance and targeting pod from Lockheed, however, as the Israeli-designed radar and LITENING pods will not be an option. As advanced AESA radars become more mainstream in the global military market, the lack of an AESA option is also likely to cost the F/A-50 orders, unless KAI and Lockheed Martin come to an agreement. Proposals to upgrade the ROKAF’s KF-16s with AESA radars could offer a way out of the impasse.

T/F/A-50: The Program

Customers: ROKAF (102), Indonesia (16).
Key Prospects: USA, Israel, Poland.
Losses: Singapore, UAE (?)

• Jan. 2012: ROKAF FA-50 order?
• May 2011: Indonesia win.
• Jan. 2011: TA-50 production rollout.
• Sep. 2010: Singapore loss.
• Sep. 2009: IAI’s EL/M-2032 radar deal for FA-50/TA-50.
• Apr. 2009: ROKAF’s aerobatic Black Eagles switch to T-50B.
• Feb. 2009: UAE loss (?)
• Dec. 2008: Development contract for FA-50.
• Dec. 2006: ROKAF order #2, for T-50s and TA-50s
• Jan. 2006: T-50 development done, 1st 2 delivered.
• Feb. 2003: T-50 goes supersonic for 1st time.
• Oct. 1997: Development program authorized by ROK.
• 1992: Conceptual design begins.

T-50 cutaway, KAI
(click to view full,
scaled to fit page)

KAI is the T-50’s prime contractor, and is responsible for the design of the fuselage and tail unit, final assembly of the aircraft, and design of the accompanying training systems. The mid-mounted variable camber wings are manufactured by Lockheed Martin, who is also responsible for the avionics and fly-by-wire flight control system, and provides technical consulting.
The production line at Saechon is designed for a 1.5-aircraft-per-month production capability with a single shift, but the assembly process can produce up to 2.5 aircraft per month by simply adding another shift if orders increase. Man Sik Park, director of the T-50 management team at Sacheon, adds that “Getting more customers than our line can currently handle is no problem because we can increase the production rate further with additional tools and assembly jigs.”

TA-50 drops tank
(click to view full)

The ROKAF already has production orders for 102 of KAI’s aircraft: 50 T-50 trainers, 22 TA-50 LIFT/ light fighters (with an option for another 22), 10 T-50B aerobatic aircraft that replaced the Black Eagles’ A-37 Dragonflys, and 20 FA-50s. Further domestic orders may follow in 2013 for 40-110 more upgraded FA-50 variants, to replace the RoKAF’s F-5 Tiger II and F-4 Phantom fighters.
Outside South Korea, Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems and KAI have created the T-50 International Company (TFIC) to pursue export markets. Indonesia (16 TA-50/T-50i) remains the only export customer so far.
The FA-50 in particular will offer performance that competes favorably with likely competitors such as the Chinese/Pakistani JF-17, and India’s Tejas LCA. All 3 of these jets are likely to find themselves competing in the niche once occupied by a pair of 1960s-1970s era competitors – Russia’s MiG-21s, and Northrop’s amazingly popular F-5, which still flies with the ROKAF. Both aircraft types are still flying in many air forces, and both are reaching the end of their lifespan. Hence the market opportunity. Unlike its Chinese and Indian competitors, however, the F/T/A-50 family’s secondary fighter trainer role makes it attractive to first and second world air forces as well.

Note: article from www.defenseindustrydaily.com