South Korea's KF-21 Boramae enters service with first production delivery

South Korea's homegrown fighter programme hit a service milestone on 22 September 2026, when the Republic of Korea Air Force took delivery of its first serial production KF-21 Boramae.

Tail number 25-001, in full ROKAF markings, left Korea Aerospace Industries' Sacheon facility for Yecheon Air Base in North Gyeongsang Province. Major Han Jae-seok, one of the service's first KF-21 pilots, flew the twin-seat airframe and signed the acceptance and delivery paperwork before the flight. An FA-50 light attack aircraft, a TA-50 trainer and a T-50 jet trainer flew alongside.

The jet left the factory in March 2026 and then completed acceptance trials.

According to reporting attributed to Yu Yong-won TV, the aircraft is a Block I example and will join the 156th Fighter Squadron under the 16th Fighter Wing. That unit flew F-4E Phantom IIs and was stood down in 2012; it was reactivated on 1 June 2026 as a new KF-21 squadron.

The handover comes 25 years and six months after a domestic fighter programme was announced in March 2001, and roughly ten years and nine months after system development began in December 2015. The KF-21 is South Korea's first fighter aircraft developed at home.