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| A model of one of several designs for the KFX |
By Robert Farley
Will the European defense industry profit from the United States’ refusal to share sensitive technology with Seoul?
Earlier this week, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter refused South Korea’s request to reconsider the transfer of four technologies associated with stealth aircraft.
The tech transfer was part of a larger deal intended to deliver 40 F-35 Joinst Strike Fighters to South Korea, along with 25 technologies associated with the program. These technologies would have jump-started the RoK’s own stealth fighter program. However, the State Department (advised by the Department of Defense, hence the direct request to SecDef Ash Carter) quashed the transfer of four of the twenty-five technologies.
This decision is part of a long-standing system of export controls, initially designed to preserve the West’s technological advantages over the Soviet bloc. While Soviet industry was capable of many things, it struggled to keep pace with Western technological innovation, especially in the tech sector. Export controls were expected to prevent the Soviet Union from injecting new technologies into its defense-industrial base. Now, military export controls protect U.S. technological advantages from Russia and China.
Read the full story at The Diplomat