One of the more interesting announcements made at the recently concluded Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2022 last month was by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI).
Its president and chief executive officer, Temel Kotil, announced that the company was willing to offer Malaysia joint production of the Hurjet (main image), and other aircraft, including possibly, Turkey’s “fifth-generation” stealth fighter, the TF-X.
The Hurjet is a two-place, single engined, supersonic advanced trainer and light combat aircraft. It is one of the contenders to fulfil the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s (RMAF) requirement for an advanced Light Combat Aircraft and Fighter Lead-In Trainer (LCA/FLIT).
The payoff for the eventual winner is quite substantial. The RMAF’s LCA/FLIT contract calls for 36 aircraft, valued at a staggering RM4 billion.
Manufacturers are tripping over themselves to offer Malaysia sweet deals in terms of technology transfers, manufacturing programmes and other offset packages as the race for the LCA programme hots up.
However, an industry expert told Twentytwo13 that these offers must be tempered by caution.
“If you want to kickstart your own aerospace industry, that’s one of the best, most efficient ways of doing it,” said the insider.
“However, it would take a long time before you see any results.
“The South Koreans did it. Back in the 90s, as part of their deal to acquire the Lockheed Martin (then General Dynamics) F-16 Fighting Falcons for the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF), the Americans helped them establish and develop their own maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) infrastructure.
“That became the basis of their aerospace industry that we see today. It allowed them to gradually develop their capacity – from MRO functions, to now, designing, developing, flight testing and certificating their own aircraft,” he said.
The South Koreans’ decision, in the mid-2000s, to develop their own indigenous aircraft for light combat and training duties, took the world by surprise.
Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) unveiled the TA-50/FA-50 Golden Eagle, a two-seat, light combat aircraft, powered by a single General Electric F-404 afterburning turbofan engine, that can also be used as an advanced trainer.
KAI had worked closely with the manufacturer of the F-16, and when the prototype was unveiled, it bore a striking resemblance to the Fighting Falcon – from the overall shape, to the sidestick controller, and the cockpit layout.
“However, there are a few things we must consider. The first is the development cost of the aircraft. It cost the American taxpayers US$56 billion to develop the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Let’s say the cost to develop an aircraft in the class of Turkey’s Hurjet and South Korea’s FA-50/TA-50 is half of that … that is still a huge investment.
“We would need to invest in tooling, jigs, autoclave facilities (to ‘cook’ and ‘cure’ carbon composites for the aircraft’s structures), engine and avionics test stands, systems integration facilities, weapons testing and validation facilities, a flight test range, the associated telemetry equipment to monitor those test flights, develop a flight test programme that meets all the criteria of potential customers, validation and certification of the aircraft, a radar facility to develop and validate the radar system, an anechoic chamber to test and monitor the aircraft’s radar emissions and signature, all weather testing … the list is endless.
“A large number of these facilities do not yet exist, so we would have to build them from scratch.
“Of course, the payoff would be phenomenal. It would give our aerospace industry the much-needed catalyst to expand our research, development, production and manufacturing capacity.
“The downside is, the fighter aircraft market is notoriously sluggish. Military aircraft are usually in service for about 20-30 years, so re-equipment is typically a 20-30 year cycle. KAI for instance, first unveiled the FA-50/TA-50 in 2002 … it entered service in 2005. To date, after 17 years, it has only secured about 200 sales, worldwide.
“Suppose we make the leap and invest billions of ringgit in these facilities … what happens after the RMAF’s order for 36 aircraft is fulfilled, and we cannot secure export orders? You’ve already pumped in billions of ringgit into these facilities … You’ve already hired thousands of highly-skilled, highly-specialised workers … If we cannot secure export orders to keep the production lines open and keep our engineers, aerodynamicists, and machinists employed, the ramifications to the country will be severe.”
He added that what had happened with Taiwan’s Ching-kuo F-CK-1 indigenous defence fighter should serve as a lesson.
In the late 80s, Taiwan made the decision to develop its own fighter aircraft to build self-sufficiency and to enhance its homegrown defence capabilities.
The Ching-kuo programme saw the creation of four separate independent programmes within Taiwan’s aerospace industry that ran in tandem with, and eventually coalesced, into the F-CK-1 fighter programme.
“They poured in billions of dollars into the programme to acquire vital technologies in terms of radar, weapons systems, avionics and airframe.
“Unfortunately, from a business and economic standpoint, the programme was a failure, because only 137 aircraft were eventually produced, making it one of the most expensive fighter aircraft ever built. It found no buyers outside Taiwan.”
The insider added that Malaysia already has a number of success stories in the aerospace industry.
“Companies like Composite Technology Research Malaysia (CTRM) and Spirit Aerosystems Sdn Bhd are doing some really good work. They build components for some of the world’s major aircraft manufacturers and vendors such as BAE Systems, Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier, Rolls Royce, Mitsubishi, Sikorsky, and Bell Helicopters.
“They have a healthy order book for work, supplying aerostructures such as fuselage sections, wing components, pylons and nacelles, for large manufacturers.
“It’s steady work, but of course, it’s not as sexy as building your own airplane. But in this business, you need to take slow, incremental steps, adopt a logical approach, and gradually build, and expand your capability.
“National prestige means nothing if you end up broke.”
