KAI A-50 to become 'FA-50' with AESA radar and datalink

The September issue of the Gonggun, the ROKAF’s official magazine, ran an article about the Korea Aerospace Industries A-50 light-attack aircraft.

According to the article the A-50 will be morphed into a lightweight fighter called FA-50 by addding two core items – an AESA radar and a tactical datalink – to the basic A-50.

The KAI seems to get its way to build at least 120 FA-50s to fill its orderbook and with these 120 new fighters the ROKAF will be able to stick to their sacred ‘500 tactical aircraft’ mantra.

However, mass producing as many as 120 FA-50s could harm the overall defence of South Korea in the long run. The ROKAF may end up like the Italian Air Force that received 110 AMX light-attack aircraft until 1997, only to put around half of them in storage.

Cheers,
Sunho