South Korea has formally entered the increasingly competitive race to develop a sixth-generation fighter aircraft. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) issued a Request for Proposal on August 21 for a conceptual study of the Korean Next-Generation Fighter, inviting industry to define the aircraft’s operational concept, configuration and technology roadmap. The programme could eventually lead to Seoul’s first indigenous sixth-generation combat aircraft.
The RFP comes alongside a separate internal design initiative by the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), which publicly unveiled a sixth-generation fighter concept in July. Together, the two efforts provide one of the earliest indications of South Korea’s thinking on the capabilities and configuration of its future combat aircraft.
The DAPA conceptual study is relatively modest in scale, with an estimated budget of around 900 million won, or approximately $650,000, and a planned execution period of 14 months. The limited funding reflects the preliminary nature of the effort rather than a commitment to full-scale aircraft development. A formal decision on launching a next-generation fighter programme is expected later in the decade. However, the detailed technical requirements included in the RFP highlight the level of ambition behind the initiative.
DAPA has called for the parallel evaluation of two different stealth fighter configurations. One concept will focus on a tailless design, while another will explore alternative control-surface arrangements, enabling the agency to assess competing aerodynamic and low-observable design approaches before selecting a preferred configuration.
The requirements also call for broadband stealth characteristics across the L, S and X radar frequency bands. This represents a broader low-observable requirement than those traditionally associated with many fifth-generation fighter designs. Propulsion concepts are expected to include two adaptive-cycle engines capable of sustaining supersonic cruise, placing South Korea’s ambitions alongside advanced sixth-generation propulsion programmes being pursued by the United States and its allies.
The study further specifies a single-seat configuration and internal weapons bays, confirming that South Korea intends to develop a genuinely low-observable aircraft architecture from the outset rather than incorporating stealth features as a secondary enhancement.
Running parallel to the DAPA initiative is the ADD’s independent research into sixth-generation fighter configurations. The agency unveiled its concept during the Aerospace Weapon Systems Technology Conference hosted by the Republic of Korea Air Force in Daejeon on July 7. ADD has described the design as the result of research focused on accelerating airframe shape generation and improving the speed of flight-performance and radar-cross-section analysis, rather than as a final programme configuration.
Nevertheless, the timing and institutional relationship between ADD and DAPA suggest that elements of the agency’s research could eventually contribute to the formal conceptual study. While the two initiatives are not officially linked, ADD’s design work could provide valuable insights as South Korea evaluates potential aircraft configurations and technology options.
The concept revealed by ADD features a fully tailless, twin-engine stealth aircraft with no conventional vertical or horizontal stabilisers. The design combines a double-delta wing configuration with canards and a blended fuselage-wing structure, reflecting aerodynamic and low-observable principles increasingly seen in next-generation combat aircraft concepts.
According to analysis by BizKorea, the concept has an estimated length-to-wingspan ratio of approximately 1.35:1, with a leading-edge sweep of around 65 degrees on the inboard section and approximately 52 degrees on the outboard section. The aircraft is also estimated to have a trailing-edge sweep variation of around 17 degrees and an aspect ratio of approximately 2.7.
The design incorporates three internal weapons bays. A central fuselage bay is reportedly sized to accommodate four MBDA Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles, while two smaller side bays are intended to carry a single Diehl Defence IRIS-T short-range missile each. Based on the dimensions of these weapons, analysts have estimated the aircraft to be approximately 16 metres long with an 11-metre wingspan, placing it within a size category comparable to other twin-engine stealth fighter concepts currently under development.
The propulsion assumptions associated with the concept appear to be based on engine technologies within South Korea’s existing or near-term industrial capabilities. The proposed engine class is comparable to the General Electric F414 used on the KF-21 Boramae or the domestically developed KTF16000 engine currently entering development. This suggests that ADD may be exploring a future fighter design that can leverage South Korea’s evolving aerospace propulsion ecosystem rather than relying entirely on a completely new engine category.
The aircraft concept also features S-shaped air intakes designed to shield engine compressor blades from radar detection, a common feature in low-observable aircraft. Another notable feature is the apparent use of thrust-vectoring control at the rear of the aircraft. The combination of thrust vectoring with a fully tailless configuration suggests that ADD may be examining ways to compensate for the reduced manoeuvrability and control authority traditionally associated with tailless aircraft designs.
Taken together, the DAPA RFP and ADD’s design research represent South Korea’s clearest public move yet toward developing an indigenous sixth-generation combat aircraft. The effort builds upon the industrial and technological foundation established through the KF-21 Boramae programme and reflects a broader ambition to advance beyond fifth-generation fighter capabilities.
South Korea’s dual-track approach, combining a government-sponsored conceptual study with internal design exploration, follows a pattern seen in other countries pursuing sixth-generation aircraft. Multiple configurations and competing technological approaches are typically evaluated during the early stages before a nation commits to a specific programme architecture.
Although a formal programme launch decision is not expected until later in the decade, South Korea’s next-generation fighter initiative is already moving through an important conceptual and technology-development phase. The technical requirements outlined so far—including multi-band broadband stealth, adaptive-cycle engines capable of sustained supersonic cruise and a tailless low-observable configuration—demonstrate that Seoul is targeting a performance level comparable with some of the world’s most ambitious sixth-generation fighter programmes.
