South Korea is stepping up efforts to strengthen its air defense with its final approval this week of a deal to purchase 40 F-35 radar-evading warplanes for deployment from 2018 through 2021 at a cost of 7.3 trillion won ($7 billion).

The approval came amid growing concerns that the South Korean Air Force could face a shortage of warplanes in the coming years, with a project to develop indigenous warplanes a decade behind schedule. Regional powers’ push to acquire their own stealth fighters also affected Seoul’s decision to choose Lockheed Martin’s F-35.

Before the final decision, there was an intense dispute about whether South Korea really needed stealth fighters to deal with the threats posed by North Korea, which is struggling with its outmoded military hardware and underfed soldiers.

High procurement costs and the development delays caused by the discovery of defects in the F-35 while it was still under development had added to the skepticism about Seoul’s purchase of the fifth-generation fighter jets.

But the final decision suggests that long-term strategic calculations prevailed.

Given that the new fighters will be used for the next three to four decades, the South needs to procure the most advanced fighter platform, and the purchase of the F-35 could send a strong message to the North that the South could quickly secure air superiority in case of North Korean aggression, analysts said.

For major countries, the procurement of radar-evading fighters has already become a key element of defense policy. The U.S. is projected to purchase 2,616 fifth-generation aircraft: a mixture of F-22s to be used by its air force and F-35 variants for its air force, marines and navy, according to the defense publication IHS Jane’s.

IHS Jane’s said in its recent analysis of the fifth generation aircraft that their new capabilities provide a significant improvement in establishing and maintaining air supremacy in the early stages of a conflict ― a reason why the stealth fighters are considered “invaluable” to a leading power.

But the analysis also noted that states, with more constrained defense budgets, will likely have to pick and choose, recognizing that the unique mission capabilities attributed to fifth-generation aircraft may prove costly and unnecessary for the actual operational requirements that they face.

Seoul plans to purchase the F-35A, which is the fighter’s air force variant. The F-35B is a short takeoff and vertical landing variant for marines and the F-35C is an aircraft carrier-based version.

The F-35 was developed under the F-35 “Joint Strike Fighter” project launched in 2001. The project is a multinational program including the U.S. and eight foreign partners: Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)