S. Korea's defense procurement subpanel approves new F-35A purchase proposal

A subcommittee of South Korea's state defense procurement committee has endorsed a basic proposal to purchase some 20 F-35A radar-evading fighters, Seoul officials said Wednesday.

The Defense Project Promotion Committee's subcommittee approved it on June 9 in a push for a 3.9 trillion won ($3 billion) project to introduce the fighters, manufactured by the US defense giant Lockheed Martin from 2023 through the mid to late 2020s, The Korea Herald reports.

The approval came as the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration is striving to beef up defense capabilities to counter North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.

The South's military completed the deployment of 40 F-35As in January under its first fifth-generation warplane procurement project. It plans to add more to the current F-35A fleet under the envisioned second project.

The proposal is likely to be tabled at a full committee session slated for July 13, according to the officials. If passed, the state Defense Acquisition Program Administration plans to carry out a feasibility study and other follow-up procedures.

The new fighter project is expected to help the Yoon administration's push to strengthen the "Kill Chain" preemptive strike program consisting of key strike assets like high-end combat aircraft.

Over the last several years, the efforts to bring in new stealth fighters gained little momentum, as the preceding liberal Moon Jae-in administration pushed for inter-Korean rapprochement. (Yonhap)