Military Reconsidering Buying US Spy Aircraft
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Defense Ministry is having second thoughts on the purchase of four U.S. Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles, in line with a reassessment of arms improvement plans under the Defense Reform 2020 modernization program.
A ministry official said Monday that Seoul was offered Global Hawks last month in working-level bilateral defense talks in Washington. The United States said it could sell the aircraft, of which overseas sales are prohibited under a global missile technology control agreement, via a ``government-to-government guarantee'' mechanism, he said.
``The defense reform plan is under review to readjust the target year, priority of weapons procurement and others,'' the official said, asking not to be named. ``That means the purchase of Global Hawks is also under review.''
Seoul had sought to buy four Global Hawks by 2011 as part of efforts to build independent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities for its takeover of wartime operational control from Washington in 2012.
The Global Hawk can survey vast areas with near pinpoint accuracy from as high as 65,000 feet for up to 35 straight hours. The price per unit is $45 million to $60 million.
The purchase hit a snag, however, over the restriction on overseas sales of the aircraft under the Missile Technology Control Regime, a voluntary association of countries which share the goal of non-proliferation of ballistic missiles and other delivery systems that could be used for chemical, biological and nuclear attacks.
The inauguration of the Lee Myung-bak government in February, however, has changed things.
Seoul began reviewing overall arms procurement under the 2020 initiative, which was pushed by the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration under as part of efforts toward ``self-reliant'' defense policies independent from the U.S. military.
Earlier this year, several officials hinted at canceling the Global Hawk purchase due to budget constraints. Instead, Seoul plans to invest more in a program led by the state-funded Agency for Defense Development to develop domestic medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles, they said.