WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- Boeing is hoping to win an export license to sell its new F-15 Silent Eagle to South Korea within a month, the company said.
The move suggests that the Chicago company will be vying for a competition due to be announced by South Korea for an order of 60 new fighters.
The company prides the F-15SE as a "customizable fighter that can be outfitted with AESA radars, radar absorbent coatings, large digital cockpit displays, fly-by-wire software, canted tails and bolt-on internal weapons bays." The plane also has special coatings to help it evade hostile aircraft.
The Boeing program manager for the F-15 Silent Eagle model, Brad Jones, said that South Korea has also placed orders for 60 K models while it has already expressed interest for the most advanced model in its third tranche of procurements expected next year.
The Defense News periodical, in fact, reported that South Korea and Boeing have been in talks, negotiating details and purchase of the specific aircraft for more than a year.
Boeing, though, hasn't been able "to openly market the semi-stealthy jet to international customers until it received clearance from the U.S. government to sell low-observable technology abroad," Defense News reported.
According to Jones, in late 2009, Boeing had provided flight evaluation data to the government in Washington about the new F-15 take. It has since then received an export release policy. It is now awaiting response from the U.S. government on its bid for a formal export license so it can meet the South Korean tender.
South Korea "has asked for information on Silent Eagle so now we've applied for the (license) and we hope to get that before the end of the month," said Jones, after a July company briefing with reporters in Arlington, Va. "As soon as the export license is provided, then I can provide (marketing) information to a country."
Boeing is also said to have reached agreement with a third-party defense company to design the weapons bay for the combat aircraft as well as other F-15 models. Jones refused to disclose details of the company, saying the defense contractors didn't want to publicize its project involvement yet.
Boeing unveiled its Silent Eagle project last March, assessing the cost per plane at about $100 million. That amount, though, will vary depending on additional equipment requested and installed.
Military experts and U.S. officials have assessed the new model aircraft as far superior to other competing models but still lagging in capabilities behind Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter.
