Egypt Egypt aims for local production of South Korean trainer aircraft

[Gamal]

Egypt’s state-owned Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) announced on 16 January that it has signed an agreement with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) for local production of the latter’s T-50/FA-50 lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT) aircraft.

The aircraft will be built at the AOI Aircraft Factory in Helwan – which previously licence-produced and manufactured aircraft for the Egyptian Air Force (EAF), including the Chinese-designed Hongdu K-8E jet trainer, Helwan HA-200 Al Kahirah subsonic trainer, and Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet – and continues to provide support for the ageing aircraft today.

AOI noted in its statement that top company officials, including chairman Mokhtar Abdel-Latif, had concluded discussions with a South Korean delegation that included their counterparts from KAI and Hanwha Aerospace as well as members of parliament.

At the core of negotiations was the implementation of the AOI’s agreement with KAI aimed at technology transfer and localisation of manufacturing for advanced jet trainers to meet EAF requirements, along with prospects for exports to African and Arab countries.

South Korean media earlier reported that Egypt’s requirement for a new jet trainer could potentially be as large as 100 aircraft and that the T-50/FA-50 was well positioned against competing designs such as the Hongdu L-15 and Italian M-346 given its commonality with the EAF’s F-16 combat aircraft.
The T-50 Golden Eagle is a single-engine, supersonic aircraft developed by KAI for the Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF) with technical assistance from Lockheed Martin, with an eye on emerging international requirements for affordable LIFT and light-attack aircraft.

More than 200 T-50/FA-50s are currently in operation worldwide, including Asia Pacific countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand. Elsewhere, Poland became the latest country to sign for the type with a US$3 billion order for up to 48 FA-50PL light attack aircraft. Deliveries are expected to commence from mid-2023.
South Korean media also suggested that Egypt could be a potential customer for the KAI KF-21 Boramae advanced multirole fighter, which is currently in advanced stages of development and undergoing flight testing.

News

www.egyptdefenceexpo.com

 

[No Name]

Egypt’s state-owned Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) announced on 16 January that it has signed an agreement with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) for local production of the latter’s T-50/FA-50 lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT) aircraft.

The aircraft will be built at the AOI Aircraft Factory in Helwan – which previously licence-produced and manufactured aircraft for the Egyptian Air Force (EAF), including the Chinese-designed Hongdu K-8E jet trainer, Helwan HA-200 Al Kahirah subsonic trainer, and Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet – and continues to provide support for the ageing aircraft today.

AOI noted in its statement that top company officials, including chairman Mokhtar Abdel-Latif, had concluded discussions with a South Korean delegation that included their counterparts from KAI and Hanwha Aerospace as well as members of parliament.

At the core of negotiations was the implementation of the AOI’s agreement with KAI aimed at technology transfer and localisation of manufacturing for advanced jet trainers to meet EAF requirements, along with prospects for exports to African and Arab countries.

South Korean media earlier reported that Egypt’s requirement for a new jet trainer could potentially be as large as 100 aircraft and that the T-50/FA-50 was well positioned against competing designs such as the Hongdu L-15 and Italian M-346 given its commonality with the EAF’s F-16 combat aircraft.
The T-50 Golden Eagle is a single-engine, supersonic aircraft developed by KAI for the Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF) with technical assistance from Lockheed Martin, with an eye on emerging international requirements for affordable LIFT and light-attack aircraft.

More than 200 T-50/FA-50s are currently in operation worldwide, including Asia Pacific countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand. Elsewhere, Poland became the latest country to sign for the type with a US$3 billion order for up to 48 FA-50PL light attack aircraft. Deliveries are expected to commence from mid-2023.
South Korean media also suggested that Egypt could be a potential customer for the KAI KF-21 Boramae advanced multirole fighter, which is currently in advanced stages of development and undergoing flight testing.

News

www.egyptdefenceexpo.com

What is Egypt trying to achieve by buying so many different plant forms?

Can Egypt even maintain that many different systems?

If so, how are the Egyptian military's logistics organised?

 

[Oublious]

What did happen with Indians ? Before you post this you should have to wait for a contract is signed. I don't think Koreans will give high end technology to third parties.

 

[Fairon]

What is Egypt trying to achieve by buying so many different plant forms?

Can Egypt even maintain that many different systems?

If so, how are the Egyptian military's logistics organised?

I think Egypt also avare of this problem and trying to fix that by buying Korean equipment.

Korea kinda became a go to country if you want to standardize your military equipment without political strings attached. They probably still buy from different blocs for political gain but their real military will be equiped with locally produced Korean equipment.

Or they want to kickstart their defence industry.

 

[Agha Sher]

Egypt is a complete nightmare. How many different types of aircraft do they want to operate. Their air force wouldn't be able to sustain 1 week of full scale combat with this kind of logistics.

 

[dBSPL]

What did happen with Indians ? Before you post this you should have to wait for a contract is signed. I don't think Koreans will give high end technology to third parties.

There is no significant technology in the T-50. The capacity at KAI is largely shifting to next-generation projects, and in this respect, the fact that the platform, which has already achieved significant commercial success, is still increasing its profitability without disrupting the current production planning, either under license or by moving the final assembly lines to user countries, is an achievement that should be appreciated.

It would also be absurd for a sales agreement of this scale to be based entirely on foreign-facility production. The Egyptian defense ministry has taken the right approach. The sad thing here is that Egypt should have started making such deals from the 1980s. Lockheed's imprint on the aircraft is also undeniable. Both politically and technically, Egypt needs to be in a position to produce them built-in-house.

I wish the best for the Egyptians. Inshallah, they will be in a much better place in the near future.

 

[Fuzuli NL]

Egypt is a complete nightmare. How many different types of aircraft do they want to operate. Their air force wouldn't be able to sustain 1 week of full scale combat with this kind of logistics.

Their doctrine has been Soviet for so long and just like Russia, their focus is on looking cool with their new toys without much thought of what those bring with them, i.e logistics, maintenance, ordnance, spare parts etc.

 

[Rajendra Chola]

What did happen with Indians ? Before you post this you should have to wait for a contract is signed. I don't think Koreans will give high end technology to third parties.

Koreans are pretty good “businessmen” if anyone asks me. They won the Malaysian tender without the officials visiting other aircraft facilities or test flying them. In fact it was so open, that their RFP was more than the max tender value Malaysian MoF has planned, and their MoD requested more money to be allocated which was then rejected and the deal is now in investigation/court.
The other two RFP responses from india and China were well within the RFP budgetary requirements.

Indian babus at the end of the day have to give strict accounting of the money they spend and they don’t have money for “business” purposes.

But I think Egyptian deal with Koreans is near final. Ka50 at the end of the day is very less advanced trainer with more American parts and weapons than Tejas.

 

[Gamal]

Can Egypt even maintain that many different systems?

We accept this is problem for us but being dependent on one country is a bigger problem. In this case, you should always get on well with the only country you are dependent on. There is no other way

 

[Lool]

Koreans are pretty good “businessmen” if anyone asks me. They won the Malaysian tender without the officials visiting other aircraft facilities or test flying them. In fact it was so open, that their RFP was more than the max tender value Malaysian MoF has planned, and their MoD requested more money to be allocated which was then rejected and the deal is now in investigation/court.
The other two RFP responses from india and China were well within the RFP budgetary requirements.

Indian babus at the end of the day have to give strict accounting of the money they spend and they don’t have money for “business” purposes.

But I think Egyptian deal with Koreans is near final. Ka50 at the end of the day is very less advanced trainer with more American parts and weapons than Tejas.

Is Tejas more advanced than the KA-50?
I thought that they were nearly the same with the Tejas being more geared to kill enemies and more versatile as well

 

[Afif]

There is no significant technology in the T-50. The capacity at KAI is largely shifting to next-generation projects, and in this respect, the fact that the platform, which has already achieved significant commercial success, is still increasing its profitability without disrupting the current production planning, either under license or by moving the final assembly lines to user countries, is an achievement that should be appreciated.

It would also be absurd for a sales agreement of this scale to be based entirely on foreign-facility production. The Egyptian defense ministry has taken the right approach. The sad thing here is that Egypt should have started making such deals from the 1980s. Lockheed's imprint on the aircraft is also undeniable. Both politically and technically, Egypt needs to be in a position to produce them built-in-house.

I wish the best for the Egyptians. Inshallah, they will be in a much better place in the near future.

Bro, that is very generous of you.
I think lot of our friends here does not appreciate the recent initiatives by the Egyptians to develop a defense industry for the current political condition of that country.

But personally, i believe in some area we should try to look beyond the politics in long term state to state manner.

I mean, that is exactly how we were able to take BD and Turkey bilateral relationship to a whole new level after escaping a diplomatic crisis in 2016.

 

[Rajendra Chola]

Is Tejas more advanced than the KA-50?
I thought that they were nearly the same with the Tejas being more geared to kill enemies and more versatile as well

FA50 is still an trainer. Tejas is an full fledged fighter. It’s no comparison.

Other than engine and radar, there are no other similarities. Tejas still uses Israeli HUD , FA50 uses American ones I think. Weapons wise, Tejas has 3 times more weapons already integrated, Indian , Russian , Israeli and French ones. Thr advantage of FA50 is most of its secondary subsystem are also designed by experienced aerospace companies from LM to Thales. While Tejas ones are a mix of Indian to foreign ones.

However for purely trainer/light attack roles, Tejas is probably an overkill.