Unfortunately, Indonesia is still in debt in this project. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), a defense company from South Korea (South Korea), is demanding the Indonesian government's commitment to pay off payments related to the KF-21 Boramae fighter jet project.
Senior Manager & Chief KFX Joint Development Management Team Lee Sung-il said, the financing for KF-21 Boramae was borne by three parties, namely 60 percent from the South Korean government, 20 percent from the Indonesian government, and 20 percent from KAI.
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The total investment from this project was recorded at 8.8 trillion Won (equivalent to Rp100 trillion). However, Indonesia has not paid again since January 2019 and will only return to paying in November 2022.
According to him, the Indonesian government has paid 17 percent but 83 percent has not been paid. During the program, Korea paid for the majority of the cost share from the 2016-2022 period.
"We hope that the Indonesian government can immediately pay and continue to be committed to this project," said Lee, when receiving a visit from 13 Indonesian journalists from the Indonesia Next Generation Journalist on Korea program from the Korea Foundation and the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) at KAI, Sacheon, Friday.
Despite facing funding problems, TNI pilots successfully completed the initial flight test of the KF-21 Boramae fighter jet. Metrotvnews.com had the opportunity to witness live trials of a prototype or prototype of the KF-21 Boramae fighter jet with the number "004".
As quoted from the Korea Joongang Daily, Indonesia is said to be notifying South Korea about the advanced payment at the end of June 2023.
"Indonesia notified about this next payment plan after last paying for the KF-21 project last November, the first time in almost four years," said South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration Minister, Eom Dong Hwan.
The KFX/IFX project itself has started since 2015 and is scheduled to be completed in 2026.
"To ensure that the payment plan is running normally this month, our project head is scheduled to visit Indonesia soon to hold talks with relevant parties about the details," Eom said again.
"We plan to follow up on this so as not to interfere with the development of the KF-21," he continued.
An Indonesian Air Force pilot, Colonel Sugiyanto, first tried to fly prototype number 4 KF-21 on May 16, 2023, from the Sacheon Air Base, South Korea.
This tandem flight was manned by KAI pilot Jim Tae Bom who sat in the front seat and Colonel Sugiyanto sat in the back seat to test the communication, navigation and identification systems of this aircraft, accompanied by an F-16 jet belonging to the South Korean Air Force.
Meanwhile, when Metrotvnews.com visited KAI, the KF-21 Boramae "004" fighter jet was flown by a TNI pilot, namely Lt. Col. (Pnb) Ferrell "Venom" Rigonald. The flight test of the KF-21 Boramae was carried out at the airfield at the KAI factory in Sacheon, South Korea.
Lee Sung-il said that while in South Korea, the TNI pilot also acted as a chaser for the KF-21 flight test by KAI test pilots. Meanwhile, the chaser aircraft for the Indonesian test pilots is the T-50i owned by RoKAF.
According to him, currently there are 30 Indonesians participating in this program.
"You have seen two Indonesian pilots, one of whom flew on plane number 004. One person is working elsewhere, and there are 28 PT DI (Dirgantara Indonesia) engineers working in the production and development area," he explained.
KAI, he said, is producing a total of eight fighter jets for Indonesia, of which 2 are still in ground tests and 6 are already in flight tests. Therefore, his party is waiting for the commitment and certainty from the Indonesian government regarding the cost share that must be repaid.
“I believe that (cost share) is a G2G (intergovernmental) discussion. Currently, everything is being discussed,“ he concluded.
