South Korea will decide early in December whether to go ahead with the KF-X program to develop a fighter domestically. The country would save 9 trillion won ($7.8 billion) over a 30-year life cycle if it built the aircraft, according to a long-awaited and widely leaked report from Konkuk University that the Defense Acquisition Program Administration presented to parliament on Nov. 13. The KF-X also would create up to 70,000 jobs, the university’s researchers say.

CHINA MOON: China has opened what it calls an especially important facility in its lunar exploration program. The 7,000-square-meter plant in Beijing will be used for the design of exploration systems and all critical subsystems and for in-orbit management of spacecraft and fault analysis. China is laying the groundwork to land astronauts on the moon, which would follow an ambitious lunar robotic precursor program that also could pave the way for the country’s first unmanned probe to Mars.

General Electric and Avic System will form a joint Chinese avionics company, improving the U.S. firm’s chances of winning work on the Comac C919 airliner. The business will develop and market “fully integrated, open-architecture avionics and services for future commercial aircraft programs,” GE said. The immediate focus is to jointly bid as suppliers for the C919, said Lorraine Bolsinger, president of GE’s Aviation Systems business.