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South Korean KF-21 Boramae fighter completed its maiden flight on February 20

The fourth prototype of the South Korean KF-21 Boramae fighter, which is also the first two-seat variant of the jet, completed its maiden flight on February 20.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a statement today that the aircraft took off from the 3rd Training Wing, Sacheon, at 11:19 am (local time). The duration of the flight was 34 minutes.

In January, the KF-21 completed its first supersonic flight. This follows more than 80 Boramae test flights in recent years. While the KF-21 is technically a fourth-generation airframe, its radar-evading capabilities put it in the stealth fighter arena alongside the US F-35, Russia's Su-57 and China's J-20.

Prototype 4 is a two-seater aircraft with two pilots on board, with the cockpit divided into front and rear seats, unlike the previous prototype, which was a single-seat aircraft. This variant will mainly be used for new pilot training missions.

DAPA will build four single-seat aircraft (Units 1, 2, 3, 5); and two double-seat aircraft (Units 4, 6).

As a cockpit is added close to the front fuselage (the middle part excluding the wings and tail of the aircraft), the internal space of the fuel tank is slightly changed, but the rest of the body has the same shape as the monoseater.

Considering that this flight of Provisional Unit 4 was the first flight with the objective of confirming the initial flight stability, it flew with only one pilot on board, despite being a two-seater aircraft. With this, it plans to carry out several missions, such as verifying the effect of the difference in shape of the single-seat type on the aircraft, AESA radar and avionics testing.

The livery of Interim Unit 4 is in the shape of four planes rising into the sky at the same time on the vertical part of the tail, just like Interim Unit 3, and is different from Interim Unit 3 because the upward shape of the aircraft is yellow.

In the first half of this year, if the 5th and 6th prototypes also start flight tests, a total of 6 prototypes will extend the range and carry out verification of the aircraft's performance through continuous flight tests.

Full-scale manufacturing is scheduled to begin in 2026. South Korea hopes to deploy 40 jets by 2028 and 120 by 2032.

At the Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF), the new fighter will replace the aging fleet of F-4E Phantom II and F-5E/F Tiger II aircraft. It is not yet known how many two-seat KF-21 Boramae (out of 160 aircraft) the RoKAF intends to order.