LIMA 2025: KAI prepares to test-fly full-scale fighter-support Adaptable Aerial Platform

Korea Aerospace Industries plans to undertake a flight test of a full-scale model of its Adaptable Aerial Platform air-launched effect by September 2025. (Janes/Akhil Kadidal)

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is preparing to conduct the maiden test flight of a full-scale version of its Adaptable Aerial Platform (AAP) air-launched effect (ALE) by September 2025.

A KAI source told Janes during the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) Exhibition 2025 in Malaysia that KAI has already initiated flight-testing of the ALE in 2024 using a subscale prototype. LIMA 2025 is being held from 20 to 24 May.

The AAP is a core component of KAI's two-tiered manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) system, in which the ALE is to be slaved to a larger ‘loyal wingman' unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), which itself is subordinate to a manned combat aircraft.

The concept comprises pairing four ‘loyal wingman' UCAVs with one FA-50 or KF-21, with four AAPs paired to each UCAV. This concept was first revealed during the 2023 edition of South Korea's International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (ADEX) in Seoul.

According to information presented by KAI during LIMA 2025, the AAP's core role is to “enhance the survivability of manned and unmanned friendly assets” by performing missions such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); decoy; and electronic warfare (EW).

KAI has said that the AAP has a length of 3.1 m, a wingspan of 2.2 m, and a height of 0.7 m.

Janes understands that initially a scaled-down prototype of the AAP that was about 20% smaller in size was used to subject the platform to basic aerodynamic testing and to determine how well the ALE responded to remote control.