Douglas Wins $4-Billion Seoul Hornet Project

The Defense Ministry today said the government plans to acquire 120 F/A-18 Hornet fighter planes made by McDonnell Douglas to beef up air defenses in a project estimated to be worth more than $4 billion.

A ministry official said in a statement that 12 of the advanced U.S. aircraft will be purchased directly from the United States. He declined to give details on the other 108, saying the ministry is still negotiating terms of purchase.

Defense Minister Lee Sang Hoon later told reporters that he expects 36 of the aircraft to be assembled locally from imported McDonnell Douglas parts and 72 to be produced in South Korea under license.

Samsung Aerospace Industries, which services and supplies parts to engine makers Pratt & Whitney and Boeing, has been designated the main contractor.

McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics vied for years to win the project, which, in addition to the initial price tag, would give the company a lucrative role in partnering the evolution of the South Korean aerospace industry.

Under the program, the first aircraft is to roll off the assembly line in 1992.

Defense Ministry officials in Seoul said in October that the co-production deal had been agreed upon with Washington at a government-to-government level but that it could be delayed by opposition in Congress.

South Korea’s program follows the controversial FSX co-development project between the United States and Japan. In that deal the two governments agreed to co-produce an improved version of the F-16 Falcon, but critics said U.S. companies were giving away technology and sacrificing American jobs.

The similarities led at least one U.S. senator earlier this year to dub the project “son of FSX.”

Some U.S. critics of the co-production project with South Korea say Seoul should purchase all 120 planes to help narrow Washington’s trade deficit.