The U.S. Defense Department has notified Congress of the possible sale of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth warplane or Boeing’s F-15 Silent Eagle to South Korea, which is to pick the winner of its fighter acquisition contest later this year.

On Wednesday, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which handles Washington’s foreign military sales, announced the compulsory congressional notification, which took place last Friday.

“The proposed sale will provide it (South Korea) with a credible defense capability to deter aggression in the region and ensure interoperability with U.S. forces,” the DSCA said in a statement on its website.

Along with the two U.S. fighter jets, the Eurofighter Typhoon of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company N.V. is a candidate for the so-called FX competition through which Seoul seeks to buy 60 warplanes with a budget of 8.3 trillion won ($7.48 billion).

Seoul plans to announce the winner by the end of June amid increasing North Korean missile and nuclear threats.

According to the parliamentary notification, the sale of 60 F-35A conventional takeoff-and-landing models would be worth $10.8 billion. The price tag includes not only the airplane, but also associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support.

The F-35 would be sold through a government-to-government “foreign military sale” in which the Washington government would broker a contract between Seoul and Lockheed Martin. But the sale of the F-15SE would be via a mix of the FMS and direct commercial sale.

The notification listed $2.4 billion for 60 F-15SEs, but the price covers only a portion of the deal under the FMS process, which includes certain equipment such as active electronically-scanned array radars and digital electronic warfare systems.

Along with the FMS price tag for the F-15 SEs, observers here believe that the entire cost for purchasing 60 units could amount to $8-9 billion.

“Lockheed Martin is honored to partner with the U.S. government to offer the F-35 to meet Korea’s demanding security needs for the next 30-40 years,” the company said in a statement.

Boeing also expressed confidence regarding Seoul’s competition to replace aging F-4s and F-5s.

“We are confident our Silent Eagle offering is best suited to address F-X requirements. Silent Eagle builds on a continuous evolution of capability in the combat-proven F-15 family of aircraft with a bundle of additional capabilities,” it said in a statement.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)