By Lee Tae-hoon
Korea will deploy its first airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft that will significantly improve the nation’s defense capabilities against threats as early as late June this year, a procurement official said Wednesday.
“The first of four AEW&C aircraft to be delivered from Boeing is scheduled to undergo an acceptance inspection in May and June in Korea,” the official at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said.
“We expect to deploy it as early as late June, but this may be delayed slightly if any defects or deficiencies are found in the final testing stage.”
Each of the three remaining planes, tagged at $400 million each, will be subsequently delivered at six-monthly intervals with the final one expected to go through final tests here in late 2012.
The airplane, nicknamed “Peace Eye,” is capable of 360-degree detection and tracking of airborne and maritime targets within a 370-kilometer radius.
If it flies near the inter-Korean border, nearly the entire peninsular comes under its Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar which can simultaneously track up to 3,000 targets.
The Peace Eagle can carry out intelligence gathering and surveillance missions for more than 9 hours without air-to-air refueling.
As it is capable of operating at an altitude of more than 30,000 feet, it can undertake missions regardless of weather conditions. Its maximum operating altitude is 41,000 feet.
It can also detect North Korea’s AN-2 planes, propeller-driven biplanes made mostly of cloth and wood.
According to a 2010 Pentagon report, the AN-2 has “truly lethal potential,” as it gives off virtually no signature on radar, making it difficult to identify in the event of troop infiltration missions.
The North is known to possess some 300 AN-2s, which can carry 10 to 15 heavily armed soldiers across the inter-Korean border.
Randy Price, program manager of Korea’s AEW&C program at Boeing, says type test and evaluation is scheduled to begin in March.
It had a successful test flight on June 30 last year, and is currently in the development test and evaluation stage.
He said the first aircraft is now at a Boeing facility in Seattle, while the remainder are at a facility of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) for system integration and modification.
Australia and Turkey also purchased six and four of the advanced surveillance planes, respectively.