South Korea's top air carrier Korean Air Line Co. and the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd., placed their bids for Seoul's indigenous fighter development program Tuesday, the arms procurement agency said.
  

Codenamed KF-X, the 8.5 trillion won ($8.3 billion) project calls for South Korea to develop fighter jets of the F-16 class to replace its aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s. Some 120 jets are to be put into service starting around 2025.
  

"Korean Air in partnership with Airbus Defense and Space, and KAI, which teamed up with Lockheed Martin of the U.S., made the bid that closed today," an official of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said.
  

The tender requires participants to have a foreign technical assistance company.
  

"We plan to choose a preferred bidder next month before a final selection around July," he added.
  

The first government bid for the project fell through earlier this month, as Korean Air did not take part in it, citing time constraints for discussions with Airbus.
  

Industrial watchers say KAI has a technical edge over Korean Air based upon its experience developing the T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainer and the country's utility helicopter, the Surion, while the latter has larger investment capacity,
  

Airbus will be able to complement Korean Air in terms of technical issues. The South Korean military decided to use the twin-engine platform over the single-engine one, and Airbus is familiar with the platform after building the multi-role Eurofighter.
  

In a statement, Korean Air vowed to turn its participation in the project into a chance to lay the groundwork for the development of the country's aerospace industry.
  

"In cooperation with Airbus, we will develop our own fighters that exceed Eurofighter so as to provide the military with optimized capabilities and to actively make inroads into foreign markets," it said. (Yonhap)