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Around the world: Joint jet fighter program faces delay
The joint development and production of the KFX/IFX jet fighter by Indonesia and South Korea may be temporarily postponed because of technical difficulties, a Defense Ministry official said on Wednesday
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T
he joint development and production of the KFX/IFX jet fighter by Indonesia and South Korea may be temporarily postponed because of technical difficulties, a Defense Ministry official said on Wednesday.
However, the ministry’s secretary-general, Marshal Hadiyan Sumintaatmadja, did not reveal any details.
“There is a delay in the process, so it is more a delay than a suspension. There is an issue that we need to settle with the Koreans,” he told journalists. He denied the program had been cancelled because of budgetary issues, saying that the cooperation agreement worth US$8 billion would be continued.
Indonesia owns a minority share of 20 percent in the program.
The agreement was signed in 2015 and initially the first prototype was scheduled to be produced by 2019. The fifth prototype was expected to be produced at state-owned aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia in Bandung.
Indonesia initially aimed to make the jet fighters operational by 2025.
