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I am pretty sure I can tell you why there isn't any money available for Indonesia to pay its share of KF-21 development costs. The money was spent buying Rafales.

Unless Indonesia developed and holds technology essential to the programme, I see another country paying to take over Indonesia's share of the programme, by which means ROK should get its money back. Of course getting Indonesia out of the programme would probably lose any expected Indonesian...

I wonder how much longer ROK will be prepared to 'partner' with Indonesia on this project. Indonesia does not pay its share of development costs and fails to honour all undertakings to rectify the situation. There is suspicion of industrial espionage by one or more Indonesian engineers.

5G fighters all look just about the same to me!

UK, France and Sweden have been designing supersonic fighters for over 70 years. UK and France have built stealthy UAV demonstrators, both with first flight in 2012 - BAE Systems Taranis and Dassault Neuron. I suspect that BAE Systems and Dassault have a better understanding of supersonic...

If that is the case buying S-400 (which resulted in exclusion from the F-35 program) was a good move!

Talking of F-35...

The plot seems to be fairly transparent to me. Is Kotil being pressurised to get Kaan into the air against his better judgement? Why was GTU-0 repurposed from static test bed unless it was to roll Kaan out to the nation early? I presume that taking GTU-0 out of commission as a test bed would...

Is he being pressurised to announce good news prematurely?

It's a case of availability versus certainty (plus cost), isn't it? Kaan with an indigenous engine looks to be quite a few years away from availabiity but will bring certainty of serviceability. F-16 should be available sooner but without certainty of ongoing serviceability (risk of US parts...

Qatar ordered 24 Eurofighter. First delivery was August 2022. The UK assembly line at Warton had delivered 12 by August 2023. As far as I know the Qatari aircraft are the only aircraft left to be assembled at Warton. RAF orders were completed in 2019. Italian air force orders were completed in...

I recall that when the wing load test was applied to A380 (150% of maximum load it was ever expected to encounter in service), the wing failed at 147%. Had it reached 150% but not failed, would it have been considered serviceable thereafter? What was GTU-0 subjected to in tests before being...

It could be useful to find out for sure if Eurofighter can be supplied. If so - LM does not have a potential captive customer (so cannot charge highest price) - political risk of future supply cuts is altered (possibly lower than with US) - Eurofighter delivery may be much faster than F-16 delivery

Is the block on EF supply being lifted? I reckon that Turkiye should establish the answer. If EF supply to Turkiye can be unblocked, what about just buying the F-16 kits and Eurofighters? I don't recall which Eurofighter partner country is allocated marketing to Turkiye. If it is the UK, UK...

Frame #0 was supposed to be a static test frame??? It sounds like it got waylaid somewhere along the line by non-engineering considerations.

Thanks for the info, all concerned. If the aircraft being built are what would be best described as technical demonstrators, that paints a different picture of the project to the one that I was seeing.

I defer to your better knowledge. However, from the mouth of the head of TAI in mid- December I heard that TAI were still aiming for the 27th December as FF date. In January I heard FF would be in days IIRC. No mention that CDR had been completed. No mention of waiting for completion of CDR...

I don't understand. Why build a first prototype, roll it out, taxi it around but wait until a second prototype is built before flying the type?

I am aware that CDR acceptance is normal before embarking on prototype building. As far as I know Kaan development does not fit the norm. Having built the first prototype, what would be the point of waiting to fly it if it is ready to fly and start gathering flight performance data? Perhaps it...

Your assessment of probability is unusual. My understanding is that the prototypes being built are design development airframes, subject to change, rather than 'identical' aircraft to test a frozen design. Out of curiosity, a prototype aircraft exists that moves under its own power on the...