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Lockheed Martin Inks Deal With South Korea to Aid Development of T-50 Golden Eagle Program

Major American aerospace and defense firm Lockheed Martin announced today that they'd inked an exclusive deal with the Korean Aerospace Industries company for future opportunities to help develop the new upgrade paths for the Korean T-50 jet fighter program.
KAI Lockheed Martin 6 photos
Photo: KAI/ Lockheed Martin
KAI T50 Golden EagleKAI T50 Golden EagleKAI T50 Golden EagleKAI T50 Golden EagleKAI T50 Golden Eagle
In service with as many as five different Air Forces in the Middle East and East Asia since 2005, Lockheed Martin and KAI have maintained a working relationship on projects related to the T-50s since development began back in the late 90s. This working relationship even netted the Golden Eagle a stop in the United States Air Force's next-generation T-X trainer program, which it would fail to win.

With the program nearing its 20th anniversary since its first test flight in 2002, a newly signed deal between these respective Korean and American aerospace teams ensures a logical path of upgrades will continue to take shape as the type evolves from a basic jet trainer to a Lean-in fighter trainer, and s even a fully-fledged light attack jet.

"Lockheed Martin is an air power solutions leader, delivering capabilities across the entire spectrum of training and combat aircraft," explained Aimee Burnett, vice president, Integrated Fighter Group Business Development at Lockheed Martin. "We are proud to continue to partner with KAI on the T-50 to leverage our collective experiences to train the next generation of pilots to fly, fight and win."

Using their experience in the maintenance of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-35 Lightning II, and the F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighter, Lockheed Martin anticipates a gradual implementation of much of the same tech on these big-name American war birds could find itself trickling down into the T-50 Golden Eagle program as a result of this freshly renewed partnership either in weapons systems, avionics, logistics, or a combination of all three.

Lockheed Martin claims the feedback from as many as 2,500 pilots and data across over 3,500 test flights will be used to create a bucket list of upgrades and improvements that should see the T-50 become a relevant training platform well into the 2020s and beyond.
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