A South Korean air force F-15K Slam Eagle drops a laser-guided bomb while training over Gangwon Province, South Korea, Oct. 30, 2024. (South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense)
SEOUL, South Korea — The State Department this week approved the possible sale of a host of U.S.-made upgrades to South Korea’s F-15K Slam Eagle fighter aircraft.
The possible $6.2 billion sale includes high-speed mission system computers; Active Electronically Scanned Arrays, or AESA, radars; missile-warning systems and continued maintenance and software support, according to a news release from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Tuesday.
The agency, an arm of the Defense Department, is responsible for delivering on the Foreign Military Sales program. Congressional approval is required for military equipment sales of more than $25 million to NATO members and five other countries, including South Korea.
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a major ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific region,” the agency said in its release.
The sale will also improve South Korea’s “capability to meet current and future threats by increasing its critical air defense capability to deter aggression in the region and to ensure interoperability with U.S. forces,” according to the release.
Interoperability is a term used by the U.S. military to describe the ability of one nation’s forces to use another’s training methods and equipment.
The agency’s approval comes roughly two weeks after it signed off on the possible $4.9 billion sale of four E-7 Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft, also known as the Wedgetail. The aircraft’s reconnaissance capabilities will “meet current and future threats” to South Korea, the agency announced Nov. 4.
In 2002, South Korea purchased its first 40 F-15Ks valued at $4 billion from Boeing, according to a news release from the U.S.-based defense firm. An additional 21 F-15Ks were purchased in a $2 billion contract six years later.
The Slam Eagle is South Korea’s variant of the F-15E Eagle, the U.S.’s fourth-generation aircraft that entered service in 1976. It was initially assigned to air-to-air combat roles in the Air Force until the introduction of the F-15E multirole derivative in 1988, according to the service’s website.
The F-15K frequently flies in joint air drills with U.S. military aircraft. On Oct. 1, a pair of Slam Eagles served as escorts for an Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber over Seoul for the country’s Armed Forces Day parade.
One month later, four F-15Ks conducted a trilateral bomber escort drill with an Air Force B-1B and four Japanese F-2s between South Korea and Japan’s air identification zones, according to the South’s Ministry of National Defense.
