By The competition is on to see who gets the latest defense contract from the Korean military:
The Elta Green Pine early warning and fire control radar for the Arrow system. The radar can detect targets at ranges up to about 500km and is able to track targets at speeds over 3,000m/s.
South Korea said yesterday three foreign firms were bidding for an early warning project to detect North Korean ballistic missiles.
Elta Group of Israel, a Netherlands-based unit of France’s Thales Group and Raytheon of the US submitted bids by the May 18 deadline, the Defence Acquisition Programme Administration said in a statement. The winner would be announced by the end of the year, the state-run agency said without elaborating. The Ballistic Missile Early Warning Systems could cost up to $80mn, Yonhap news agency said. Its advanced radar systems aim to detect ballistic missiles launched as far as 500km away. [Gulf Times]
It would seem like Israel would have the inside track on this contract considering the interest Korea has shown in the Green Pine Radar plus signing Israel to prior contracts.
2:07 pm on May 27th, 2009 1
I thought they wanted a TPY-2? Or is Raytheon pricing themselves out of the market?
11:00 pm on May 27th, 2009 2
The Koreans wanted the US to have the TPY-2 compete but the US refused to give an export license to Korea for the TPY-2:
http://rokdrop.com/2009/02/23/korea-selects-israe…
The Green Pine radar actually makes sense for Korea considering the range of the North Korean threat they are dealing with. The Green Pine's range can easily cover North Korea.