South Korea has announced plans for the country’s future military transport aircraft, the defense blog website reported on May 12.
In the video released by the South Korean defense manufacturer, the transport plane looks similar to Japan’s C-2 and Ukraine’s An-178, the report said. It was also shown that the aircraft will be a multi-mission aircraft, can be used for cargo transport, air refueling, weapons delivery, rocket launch and so on.
Last month, Liu Guangxuan, executive vice president of the Korea Aerospace Industry Group (KAI), said the industry had reached an agreement with The Defense Procurement Planning Administration on the need to develop future transportation and multi-purpose aircraft, the report said. “Currently, the South Korean Army, Navy and Air Force have more than 30 multi-role aircraft and 70 transport aircraft,” he said. In the long run, our goal is to replace imported aircraft with domestic aircraft and to enter overseas markets with domestic aircraft. ”
He added that if domestic transport aircraft were developed successfully, it would not be possible to develop multi-purpose aircraft, including reconnaissance aircraft and maritime patrol aircraft, on that basis.
Reported that the current South Korean Air Force equipped with C-130 and CN-235 transport aircraft, mainly used for tactical transport tasks. About a year ago, South Korea’s aerospace industry announced that it would build a South Korean-made transport aircraft over seven years, with an investment of about $2.7 billion.
