Within the scope of Basic Trainer Procurement Program, the contract was signed between SSM and KAI on 3 August 2007 at a ceremony with participating of Air Forces officials, Ambassador of Korea, KAI and TAI representatives.
In order to meet the future basic trainer aircraft requirement of the Turkish Air Force Command (TuAF),a Request for Proposal was issued by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) in January 2006. Embraer (Brasil) and KAI (South Korea) companies sent their proposals to SSM in July 2006. The evaluation activities, realized by SSM and TuAF teams, were completed
by June 2007 and Contract negotiations were decided to be initiated with KAI, who was competing with the Brazilian Embraer company’s Super Tucano in the Defense Industry Executive Committee Meeting held on 20 June 2007 Under the program, the manufacturing, assembly, flight test and delivery of a total of 40 firm (+15 optional) Basic Trainer Aircraft will be realized
by TAI. These aircraft are planned to replace the existing T-37s that are in the inventory of TuAF. According to a statement released by the state-funded Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), which concluded the agreement on the Korean side, the deal will be the second largest arms export of South Korea after Samsung Techwin’s $1-billion license deal for the K-9 self-propelled howitzer with Turkey in 2001. “The initial deal was for the 40 KT-1s with a follow-up contract for the remaining 15 trainers being made in
2008,” the company said. KAI will develop an export version of KT-1, titled XKT1-C, equipped with advanced avionics systems, until 2009 and delivery will take place by 2013.Park Jae-jeom, a chief executive officer in charge of the KT-1 export,said “the KT-1 deal with Turkey is significant in that Turkey, which has used
US-made trainers, has selected the Korean trainer. That proves the KT-1 has been recognized as the world’s top-class trainer with both great performance and affordability.” He added that they expected the KT-1 would get the upper hand in competing with foreign aircraft makers in the global trainer market.