The U.S. government has approved the sale of four RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drones to South Korea.
The foreign military sale is included in a list of contracts announced on the Defense Department’s website Monday.
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp.“has been awarded a $657,400,000 hybrid contract … for aircraft for the Republic of Korea,” the announcement stated.
The contract includes four RQ-4B Block 30 Global Hawk aircraft, two spare engines and ground control equipment. The first Global Hawk is to be delivered in 2018, the San Diego, Calif.-based company said in a statement. Each aircraft will contain an “Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite,” the DOD announcement said. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but this sale has been in the works for many years because of the delays caused by concerns that technology and information would be leaked to North Korea. Now with the US wanting the ROK to take on more of their defense responsibilities enough confidence in the South Koreans to protect this technology must have been built up to approve this sale.
