JF-17 Thunder Shortlisted in Royal Malaysian Air Force Competition with South Korean FA-50.

South Korean FA-50 competes with JF-17 in Malaysia The FA-50, the nation's first domestically developed light attack aircraft, is competing against the Pakistani-Chinese jointly designed JF-17 fighter and India's Tejas for the Malaysian Air Force's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) program, under which Kuala Lumpur seeks to purchase 18 jets to replace its aging MiG-29 fleet, according to sources, Sunday. "The LCA is drawing interest from a diverse group of light multirole jets, including the FA-50, JF-17 and Tejas," the source said. The FA-50 is a variant of the T-50 supersonic trainer jet, manufactured by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). Since its first deployment in October 2013, 60 FA-50s are operated by the Korean Air Force. In addition, the FA-50 has been exported to Iraq, the Philippines and Thailand. Initially, France's Rafale, the multinational Eurofighter and the United States' F-18 were put forward for the Malaysian program, but the project has been downsized to purchasing light attack aircraft due to budget issues, giving a fighting chance to Italia's M346 and Russia's Y-130 as well as those three aircraft. Ahead of the LCA, the KAI was close to signing a deal with Argentina last year, under which it would export eight FA-50s to the country, but the potential sales were shot down by Britain. Despite interest from Buenos Aires, the KAI, which uses several British-made parts in the FA-50, was unable to close the deal due to an arms embargo imposed by the British government on the South American country.