South Korea’s plan to buy new fighter jets is expected to be finalized by June, with negotiations currently underway between the state arms procurement agency and three competitors over pricing, a senior official said Wednesday.

Lockheed Martin with its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Boeing with its F-15 SE Silent Eagle and Europe’s multinational defense group EADS with its Eurofighter have been bidding since late 2010 for the

8.3 trillion won ($7.3 billion) contract to supply 60 advanced jets to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of F-4 and F-5.

The Defense Acquisition and Procurement Agency has already completed the first round of negotiations with Boeing and EADS over pricing, while Lockheed Martin, which offers the F-35 through the Foreign Military Sales program, is still in consultation, a senior DAPA official said.

“The DAPA has effectively completed negotiations over other conditions, including technology transfer and delivery time, and it is now talking over prices,” the official spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We will complete the process by June.”

The DAPA had initially planned to pick a contractor by October 2012.

Amid high tensions with North Korea in light of its bellicose rhetoric, the defense ministry on Monday reported its plan to select a bidder in the first half of this year to President Park Geun-hye.

The DAPA is also in consultation with Germany’s Taurus System to purchase long-range air-to-surface missiles to arm the Air Force’s fighter jets that would allow them to strike all parts of North Korea, DAPA officials said.

Seoul had also considered buying Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles by Lockheed Martin, but the U.S. government has not approved sales of the 370-km range air-to-surface missile to South Korea, officials said, making the Taurus System the only bidder in the project. (Yonhap News)