South Korean aerospace and defense company LIG Nex1, preparing for the KF-X fighter program, is planning to build a demonstrator X-band radar with an active, electronically scanned array (AESA). The technology is also aimed at a future South Korean frigate program, an industry official says.

SEOUL — Commercial viability is increasingly dominating work on South Korea’s next helicopter, which, having begun as an military program, will now aim first to build a civil rotorcraft and then fashion a military version from it. A committee chaired by Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin is due to meet in mid-November to decide whether to go ahead next year with full-scale development of the Light Civil Helicopter and Light Armed Helicopter (LCH-LAH) program.

SEOUL and BEIJING — Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is pushing for South Korea to cut the technical challenges of its proposed KF-X fighter program, offering a single-engine concept that probably has a distant connection with the Lockheed Martin F-16. KAI’s KFX-E design should be cheaper to develop and build than the larger proposals put forward by the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), the chief proponent of the KF-X.