By After initially denying Korea the ability to buy Global Hawks now it appears with the election of Lee Myung-bak that the US is now interested again in selling the UAV spy planes to Korea again:
US Global Hawk
The USA has made effective use of Global Hawks since its formal unveiling in 1997, which has prompted interest from other countries. Germany will develop and induct its EuroHawk version under a EUR 430 million program, and NATO’s AGS system will now deploy Global Hawk UAVs instead of a more effective combination of Global Hawks and modified Airbus A321 jets. Outside of NATO, however, sales have reportedly been trickier. Four issues have worked to hold up potential sales – 2 of which are acknowledged openly, and 2 of which tend to play out very much behind the scenes.
South Korea ran afoul of all 4 of those issues, when the USA rejected their application to buy 4 of the larger RQ-4B UAVs in 2006. Now, it seems, the tide has turned… but that may not matter, because South Korea appears to have changed its mind. A contract with KAI and a “foreign defense firm” looks set to produce a semi-indigenous HALE UAV instead. [Defense Industry Daily]
The Korean government had requested to buy the Global Hawks back in 2006 but here is the reason why the hawks were not sold to South Korea:
The U.S. is thought to have rejected the request for fear that the core technology might be leaked. Some are known to be worried that confidential information collected on North Korea using the Global Hawk might be leaked to the North.
What I find interesting about this is that clearly this wasn’t the primary reason for not selling the Global Hawks to South Korea if suddenly the issue of leaking technology to North Korea is no longer an issue. An issue such as this just doesn’t go away with the election of a new President in Korea. It seems like the US administration at the time didn’t want to do prior Korean President Roh Moo-hyun any favors and forbid the sale of the Global Hawk.
Look at who the US did not have any problems selling the hawks to though:
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said, While continuously requesting the U.S to sell us the Global Hawk, we are also developing a domestic mid-altitude UAV system. However, the mid-altitude UAV system development will be possibly completed around 2015. On the other hand, Japan received consent to buy the Global Hawk last June, and it has already secured budgets and commenced preparations to introduce the Global Hawk into its system.
No decisions have been made, but it appears Korea will probably just go ahead and develop a domestic Korean version of the Global Hawk instead of buying them now. With a country as small as Korea someone just has to do the calculations on if researching a developing a Korean version of the hawk is worth the price compared to buying the only 2-4 American Global Hawks that could cover all their surveillance needs?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Korea goes ahead and develops their own version of the hawk not only for their own domestic needs, but to sell abroad once the technology is proven. Considering Korea’s advances in becoming a global arms dealer, this is a possibility.
10:48 pm on January 4th, 2009 1
GI,
I heard that there were three main reason why Korea gave up Globalhawk: 1) The price, 2) Expensive maintenance and 3) Although korean property the USa wouldn't allow Korea to operate the UAV freely, beause it would be controled by USA and collected data would also be controled by USA.
I'm not sure if this information is true.
12:04 am on January 5th, 2009 2
According to the Defense Industry Daily article the Koreans did have sticker shock but were still interested in buying the Global Hawk. As far as controlling the data the Defense Industry Daily article made no mention of it, but I find it hard to believe. The ROK military owns the UAV so I don't see how the US could control the data anyway?
However, the US government said Korea did not qualify to be sold the hawks under the MTCR treaty.
So what has changed in the last two years to where the US thinks Korea does qualify to be sold the hawks under the MTCR treat? They only thing that has changed is that Roh Moo-hyun is gone.
7:59 pm on January 5th, 2009 3
I would bet some of the reluctance on our part was based on two fears that the US State Dept had; 1) they might use it to spy on China or our ally Japan or even Taiwan, and 2)if the Koreans are given any means for independence (such as independent intel collection) that diminishes the influence of the US State Dept, who put their own self-interest above the interests of the American people.
1:05 am on January 6th, 2009 4
PBAR good point about the South Koreans using the hawks to spy on Japan. But it appears now that the US is no longer to concerned about this. It is not beyond my imagination though that if Korea bought the hawks, that they would spend more time monitoring the waters around Dokdo then the DMZ.