Go to stage 3: So it looks like Korea will not be getting Global Hawk after all

Friday, 27 January 2012

So it looks like Korea will not be getting Global Hawk after all

The Korea Times has an exclusive story claiming that the ROK will not be purchasing any Global Hawk UAVs as the price was just too high.

“We cannot buy the drones at the price the United States is offering them,” Noh Dae-lae, commissioner of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), said.

The story mentioned other options open to South Korea such as Global Observer and Phantom Eye. Korea has been after Global Hawk for a number of years but without much luck. There was some initial concern from the US side that should South Korea obtain Global Hawks that components may be copied for use in the domestic ROK arms industry. Those concerns appeared to have been allayed as there seemed to be consensus that the sale should go ahead. The delay and now cancellation, however, may work out to the ROK's benefit as technology is moving ahead quickly and Global Hawk is not the only player in the high-end UAV realm. The discussion about the other two UAV systems may be a hint that other options are being considered.

The other interesting part in the story is non-attributed but must have come from some insider as it is not a fact that the average journalist would immediately know nor probably even question:

Any of the three UAVs is capable of covering not only the whole of North Korea but also parts of China and other neighboring countries.

This was probably also a concern of the US originally. In the first instance they would not want one of their systems being used to spy on other friends noting that Japan is also a neighbouring country that has a territorial dispute with South Korea. Also, given the recent sophisticated US UAV that has wound up in Iran, it is likely that the US would also be concerned about one of its Global Hawks crashing into China, Russia or North Korea, even if it was an export variant.

Posted at 01:32 in Korea | Permalink

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