Post-2015: US moves to sell advanced spy drones to South Korea

Seoul has shown interest in the Global Hawk platform for at least four years.

WASHINGTON:

The Obama administration formally proposed a controversial sale of advanced spy drones to help South Korea bear more of its defence from any attack by the heavily armed North.

Seoul has requested a possible $1.2 billion sale of four Northrop Grumman Corp RQ-4 “Global Hawk” remotely piloted aircraft with enhanced surveillance capabilities, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement dated on Monday and distributed on Tuesday.

South Korea needs such systems to assume top responsibility for intelligence-gathering from the US-led Combined Forces Command as scheduled in 2015, the security agency said in releasing a notice to US lawmakers.

The United States has agreed with Seoul to turn over the wartime command of Korean troops later this decade. Current arrangements grew from the US role in the 1950-1953 Korean War that repelled a North Korean takeover of the South.

Seoul has shown interest in the high-altitude, long-endurance Global Hawk platform for at least four years. The system, akin to Lockheed Martin Corp’s U-2 spy plane, may be optimised to scan large areas for stationary and moving targets by day or night and despite cloud cover.

It transmits imagery and other data from 60,000 feet (18,300 meters) at near real-time speed, using electro-optical, infrared and radar-imaging sensors built by Raytheon Co.

The possible sale has been held up by discussions involving price, aircraft configuration and a go-slow on release of such technology subject to a voluntary 34-nation arms control pact.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26^th, 2012.