ROK fighter competition gets nasty

An ROK pilot is being held for questioning after he reportedly said in an interview that the Defense Ministry is putting pressure to get one of the four contenders for the project chosen.

“Boeing is offering its F-15K against the Rafale made by French firm Dassault SA, the Eurofighter consortium’s Typhoon 2000 and the Russian Su-32 made by Sukhoi.

The colonel was part of an air force evaluation team which newspaper reports said had given the Rafale the highest marks in field tests.

Defense Minister Kim Dong-Shin has strongly denied there was bias in the selection process.

He said Tuesday the authorities were also investigating to find the source of leaked results of the field tests to the press, which he said were a military secret.

Lawmakers on the national assembly defense committee were highly critical of the selection system on Monday. “The fairness of the evaluation methods is doubtful,” Kang Chang-Sung of the opposition Grand National Party said. “We suspect the defense ministry has political considerations to select the F-15K.”

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“Air force prosecutors arrested a colonel Saturday on bribery charges in connection with the nation’s multi-billion-dollar fighter jet procurement project.

The colonel, identified only his surname, Cho, was found to have accepted 11 million won (US$8,370) in bribes from a local firm acting as proxy for one of four foreign bidders vying for the project, military investigators said.

In return, Cho, who was a member of the air force’s evaluation team, offered the firm tips on boosting its chances to win the 4 trillion won project.

For instance, investigators said, Cho advised the firm to offer more concessions related to technology transfer and to minimize price hikes when submitting bids.

Cho’s arrest came about a week after he embarrassed the Defense Ministry by claiming in an unauthorized press interview that the ministry pressured his team to favor U.S. bidder Boeing.”

—Seoul Yonhap.

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A local representative of Dassault Aviation yesterday admitted that the French company’s local agent had delivered money to an Air Force colonel, but flatly denied that the money was intended to seek intelligence or advice in connection with the multi-billion-dollar fighter project. “It is a business practice that local agents give favors with no strings attached. Above all, Dassault Aviation has nothing to do with this case. Its local agent seemed to have provided the money as a simple favor for the colonel’s working-level officials,” said an official at Alfred Communication, a publicity firm working for Dassault.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he also argued that the arrested colonel whose wealth allegedly stands at 3.4 billon won ($2.57 million) would not have received such a small amount of money as a reward or a bribe. The corruption scandal was sparked last Saturday when an Air Force colonel, identified only by his family name of Cho, was arrested on charges of taking money and leaking military secrets.”

— The Korea Times

Members of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party also accused the ministry of favoring Boeing.

A handful of demonstrators gathered outside the defense ministry on Tuesday to demand that Boeing is not selected.”

France is sending a special envoy and its defense minister to campaign for their Rafale candidate, asking for impartiality and fairness in the selection process.

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Other Asian news:

Taiwan will lease about 30 AV8B Sea Harrier IIs from the US Marine Corps, as part of a plan to acquire about 100. This is in consideration with nearly opposing 300 missile batteries in the Chinese coast, the chances of conventional bases to be knocked out is quite high.

There are reported glitches on the radar of the Japanese F2 in trials that prevented its deployment. This beefed up F16 variant currently holds the record for the most expensive fighter in the world, at a staggering 12 billion yen per copy.

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