The Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF) has received the first of four Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) ordered in 2014.
Several local media outlets quoted a Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesperson as saying that the surveillance UAV arrived at Sacheon Air Base in South Gyeongsang Province in the early morning hours of 23 December.
The RoKAF received on 23 December the first of four Global Hawk UAVs it ordered in 2014 to satisfy its HALE intelligence and surveillance requirements. (Northrop Grumman)
The remaining three platforms are expected to arrive in the Northeast Asian country in first half of 2020, reported the Yonhap News Agency, pointing out that the schedule might be subject to change.
The announcement comes after the US Department of State approved in July a potential logistics support contract for the RoKAF's Global Hawk UAVs.
The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced on 30 July that Seoul had requested to purchase contractor logistics support (CLS), programme management, depot and organisational level maintenance, technical and logistics services, and other related elements of logistics and programme support, adding that the total estimated programme cost would be USD950 million.
The Foreign Military Sale (FMS) would enable South Korea to “sustain and operate its fleet of RQ-4 Block 30 remotely piloted aircraft and will significantly advance US interests in standardisation with the Republic of Korea’s Armed Forces”, said the DSCA at the time, adding that the sale would also “further strengthen the interoperability between the United States and the Republic of Korea and ensure the alliance has a robust intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability on the Korean Peninsula”.
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