Fifth-generation fighters will determine air dominance in future conflicts.

• Author: Parsons, Dan

In August 2013, South Korea chose Boeing's F-15SE as its next-generation fighter aircraft over Lockheed Martin's F-35 and the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Months later, the South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration reversed course in favor of buying fewer of the more capable F-35.

John Pike, Globalsecurity.org think tank director, said the episode is the best endorsement of the joint strike fighter's flfth-generation technologies, regardless of its problematic development and relatively high cost.

"I think the sovereign answer on the F-35 is South Korea," Pike told National Defense. "They had a flyoff between the F-35 and the F-15 and they chose the F-15. That was a really interesting competition because it was apples to apples. The F-35 was four times more expensive. Initially the price difference drove them to choose the cheaper aircraft. Then a little down the road, they thought better of it and reversed the decision, cost be damned."

South Korea has a vested interest in keeping up with the latest in fighter technology and capabilities. It sits in the middle of a region that is increasingly dominated by an expansionist China, which is developing its own fifth-generation fighter, the Chengdu J-20. That aircraft, which mimics the F-35 in its stealth and sensor technologies, is scheduled to become combat ready at the same time as its U.S.-developed counterpart.

South Korea's decision to purchase the more expensive F-35 was likely a long-game wager that it would have to one day counter the Chinese air force, Pike said.

"In another five years, there will be two types of aircraft in Asia: stealth fighters, meaning fifth-generation fighters, and targets," he said. "There's no reason to buy a bunch of F-1 5s when all you're doing is providing Red China with target practice."

Fifth-generation fighters bring more to the table than simply stealth. In future conflicts, they will charge ahead and determine which force will achieve air dominance, Pike said. Older fighters, which will still be in US. and other nations' fleets for decades, will then come in and perform "clean-up" missions against enemy positions and air-defense installations, he added. They also will carry sophisticated electronic-attack weaponry designed to counter enemy radar and air defenses in the sort of non-permissive environments that U.S. aircraft have not had to contend in the wars of the past decade.

The F-35 and F-22 Raptor, which entered service in 2005, incorporate an electronics suite and...