Poland will buy Korean training jets

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rock45

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Poland will buy Korean training jets
December 08, 2008​
Polish President Lech Kaczynski expressed his intention Saturday to buy South Korean-built T-50 training jets, as well as his desire to cooperate with South Korea in nuclear energy development.

Kaczynski arrived in Seoul earlier on Friday for a two-day official visit to South Korea. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the bilateral relationship between Poland and South Korea.

“Relations between our two states have been good for the last twenty years and this is the essence of my visit to Korea under the goal of consolidating our relations,” Kaczynski said.

Korea’s investment in Poland is the biggest among all Asian countries and the trade between Poland and Korea exceeds that between Poland and Japan, he noted.

“Now we hope to boost our exports to Korea while we have plans to buy the T-50 planes, which represent an excellent achievement for Korea,” said Kaczynski.

“We also hope to cooperate with Korea in the field of renewable energy, particularly nuclear energy, in which Korea is advanced.”

Poland is interested in stopping the development of nuclear programs in the Korean Peninsula, Kaczynski said, noting that the Pyongyang program of developing nuclear arms is not a domestic, but a global issue.

After summit talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Friday, Kaczynski met with Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, received an honorary doctorate from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and also visited the Demilitarized Zone before leaving South Korea Saturday.


By Park Sun-young Staff Reporter/ Kang Byong-chol JoongAng Ilbo

Link
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2898291
 
This is certainly good news. A lot of money went into developing that thing and I'm glad we were able to find some customers.
 
New markets

I still think this could be made into a mini F-16 and used as short range fighter and/or Light-Combat aircraft.

I can see this aircraft break into some older user markets where: F-5, A-37, AMX, J-7, Mirage III/5/Kfir, Mig-21, even as a F-16 A/B replacement.
 
Very well could be. Obviously the F-16, which South Korea has experience in manufacturing had a LOT of influence in it. I saw one up close actually and the feeling I got is that it's smaller than an F-16. Not sure if that's accurate as I haven't bothered to look it up but it looks like a nice plane. Hopefully other buyers will be out there. After all, not everyone needs the top of the line fighter jets and sometimes a larger number of smaller and cheaper combat aircraft is what's needed for some missions.
 
The Hawk could be a better economic alternative.
The T-50 is after all a brand new aircraft. Though for the F-16s that Poland has, the T-50 would be more appropriate.
 
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