in progress..............

SEOUL - U.S. and European fighter jet makers are gearing up for South Korea's third-phase fighter acquisition competition set for next year.
The South Korean Air Force wants to replace its 200 McDonnell Douglas F-4Es and Northrop F-5 E/Fs - decades-old fighter jets that have seen several fatal crashes in recent years
- with a mix of state-of-the-art, imported and indigenous aircraft by 2020.
The service has also been upgrading its F-16s.
In 2000, South Korea launched the F-X program, an effort to buy 120 foreign fighters by 2020. Boeing won the first two stages, obtaining orders for 60 F-15Ks. The third stage, dubbed F-X III which encompasses 40 to 60 aircraft, will see requirements released next year and a final contract in 2012.
But Seoul is also pushing ahead with KF-X, an effort to work with foreign manufacturers to design and build at least 120 indigenous fighters on par with the F-16 Block 50. After several years of debates, the government decided earlier this year to move ahead and devote 4.4 billion won ($3.6 million) to exploratory development next year.
South Korea likely will link the F-X III to the KF-X in a bid to acquire advanced Western aircraft technology and increase its leverage in F-X negotiations.
Eurofighter, which has long vied for Korean aircraft contracts, sees the third phase as an opportunity to pierce the wall of U.S. dominance here. The European company says South Korea could receive lenient technology transfers, should the country join its Typhoon program, which currently has about 700 aircraft under contract with five European nations and Saudi Arabia.
An official responsible for the Eurofighter campaign in Seoul claimed the fighter allows options and upgrades that are unavailable for American jets.
"If you have an F-16 or F/A-18 fighter, for example, you're limited to how far you can upgrade it, given that they are both old platforms," the official said.
Lockheed Martin's F-35 is seen as a leading candidate for F-X III, whose requirements are expected to include a measure of stealth. But officials here have been rattled by the program's cost overruns, potential delivery delays, and the operational risks of adopting an early version of the plane.
Randy Howard, senior director at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., dismissed the concerns.
"The F-35 is a centerpiece of security cooperation between the U.S. and key partners and allies, and a future sale to Korea is first and foremost about a stronger security relationship with the United States government," Giese wrote in an e-mail. "We believe that the F-35 - the world's only internationally available 5th-generation fighter - fully meets Korea's acquisition timelines and will provide unprecedented level of multi-role capability in both air-to-air and air-to-surface missions."
Giese said the price of an F-35 will depend on South Korea's requirements, but will be comparable to the fourth-generation fighters it would replace.
"Lockheed Martin fully supports Korea's fighter force recapitalization efforts through an open and transparent competition," he said.
Boeing, the reigning champion of the F-X competition, is aiming to win the third tranche with a stealthy variant of its twin-engine F-15. Within the month, the Chicago-based defense giant expects to receive an export license for its new F-15 Silent Eagle, which carries export-restricted low-observable technology.
On July 8, the Boeing Silent Eagle flight demonstrator aircraft F-15E1 completed a first flight from Lambert St. Louis International Airport, the company said in a news release.
"The Silent Eagle demonstration flight validated our initial engineering design approach," said Boeing F-15 Development Programs Director Brad Jones.
In the next couple of weeks, the F-15E1 will test-launch an AIM-120 missile, Jones said.
Gregory Laxton, vice president of Boeing Korea, attempted to defuse concerns about older systems by saying the Silent Eagle's gear is "state-of-the-art," even though its design is almost the same as existing F-15s.