Rosoboronexport offered T-50 (PAK FA) fighters to South Korea. The jets may be purchased in the network of FX-III tender for delivery of 60 fighters. According to Lenta.ru (with reference to Jane's) the proposal was unofficial. Information related to the offer was not confirmed officially.

According to a source, Rosoboronexport plans to jump at the opportunity of delivering new fighters to South Korea in light of requirement strengthening for the fighters without making changes in the tender’s budget. It was reported earlier that the Command of South Korea’ Air Forces strengthened the requirements in terms of fighters’ stealth capabilities. F-35 Lightning II fighter took the lead in view of new requirements.

The following jets have been taking part in the tender: F-35, F-15 Silent Eagle and Typhoon. F-35 was excluded from the tender due to its high cost and “varying” completion date of the project, while the European Typhoon was excluded due to non-compliance to the requirements in the area of stealth capabilities. F-15SE fighter qualified for the final round; however, South Korea decided to abandon it due to low stealth capabilities.

At present Korean air forces offer the Ministry of Defense several variants of purchasing the combat aircraft. The first scenario assumes purchase of 60 F-35 Lightning fighters via single source contract. The second scenario assumes mixed purchase of the fighters: 40 F-35s and 20 F-15SE or Typhoon jets. Probably Rosoboronexport plans to sell T-50 fighters in the network of the second scenario.

South Korea issued a tender for delivery of 60 fighters in late 2011. The country’s Ministry of Defense planned to spend about $7,5 billion on this contract. The following fighters took part in the tender: F-35, F-15SE and Typhoon. It was reported that Rosoboronexport also submitted its bid offering T-50 fighters. Later Korea said that Russia has withdrawn T-50 from the tender.

Korea extended the tender’s deadline several times in summer 2013, because none of the participants were able to offer the cost of the fighters meeting the tender’s requirements. Despite the fact that Korean air forces have not chosen the fighter yet, the country’s Ministry of Defense plans to purchase the jets as soon as possible in order to complete the fleet modernization program.

The FX tender is aimed at replacing 150 outdated F-4 Phantom II and F-5 Freedom Fighter/Tiger II aircraft. In the network of FX-I stage South Korea purchased 30 F-15K fighters from USA (the same number of aircraft of the type was purchased in the network of FX-II tender).