S. Korea Could Get Spy Plane Via Consortium
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The United States plans to share one of its most advanced reconnaissance aircraft with its Asian-Pacific allies, including South Korea and Japan, in an effort to boost security in the region, a U.S. military newspaper reported Wednesday.
The plan is expected to give a green light to South Korea's pursuit of buying the high-flying unmanned spy plane, the Global Hawk, by 2011.
A conference planned for April in Hawaii would discuss the idea of developing a regional consortium to buy and operate the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built by Northrop Grumman, the weekly Defense News said.
The conference would bring together representatives from Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and Sri Lanka, it said.
Partners would agree to provide launch and landing sites for the long-range UAV and share the information it gathers, Gen. Jeffery Remington, director of air, space and intelligence operations for the Pacific Command, was quoted as saying.
The Global Hawk entered service after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. It is designed to survey vast areas with near pinpoint accuracy from as high as 65,000 feet for up to 35 hours. A unit costs $27.6 million.
The U.S. Air Force is expected to deploy the spy aircraft to Andersen Air Force Base on Guam in 2009, according to the newspaper.
Seoul has sought to purchase four Global Hawks as part of efforts to build independent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities for its planned takeover of wartime operational control from the United States in 2012.
South Korea wants to buy the latest model, the RQ-4B, estimated to cost $45-60 million.
The RQ-4B would be able to fly just outside North Korean air space and see everything going on inside the North.
Toward that end, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has requested about $200 million for the purchase of four Global Hawks by 2011, DAPA's public affairs officer Cmdr. Park Sung-soo said.
``The consortium plan is new to us,'' Park told The Korea Times. ``But since we've persistently sought to buy Global Hawks, we would consider accepting the proposal positively.''
Reports said South Korea would lease an RQ-4 this year for evaluation flights and wants to conclude negotiations over the aircraft purchase by 2009 and start flying them by 2011.
Seoul's plan to purchase Global Hawks has been stalled as overseas sales of the aircraft are prohibited under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a global arms control pact.
The MTCR is a voluntary association of countries that share the goal of non-proliferation of ballistic missiles and other unmanned delivery systems that could be used for chemical, biological and nuclear attacks. The Global Hawk is classified as a category 1 item by the 34-member regime.
MTCR members are required to coordinate national export licensing efforts, and all MTCR decisions are made by consensus.
The United States is seeking to amend related provisions for the Global Hawk sale, but some member countries including Russia are skeptical about the plan, concerned it would undermine their own UAV technology, according to reports.