Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace is unveiling its indigenously-developed fighter engine for the first time at the Farnborough Airshow. The 15,000-pound thrust class powerplant is “on a par with GE’s F414,” said the company.
Hanwha is developing its own engine that could power the KAI KF-21 Boramae indigenous fighter in its Block III incarnation from the mid-2030s. Apart from generating similar thrust output to the GE Aerospace F414 that powers initial production KF-21s, little detail has emerged concerning the new powerplant. The new engine is also earmarked for future unmanned combat aircraft.
In April Hanwha Aerospace celebrated the delivery over 45 years of 10,000 gas turbine engines, which included license-built General Electric J79s for F-4 aircraft, F110s for F-15s and F-16s, and F404s for the KAI T-50/FA-50 family. Homegrown products have also been built for missiles and auxiliary power units, and the company ranks as a top-tier partner of the three global engine giants: GE Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce.
At the same time, the company began constructing a new facility at its Changwon Plant 1 site for building F414 engines for the first production batch of the KF-21. Last month a contract worth around $400 million was received from South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration to supply over 40 F414s with related spares and support for Boramae production.