Global Hawk sales allowed

[unhappycamper]

Global Hawk sales allowed
By Erik Slavin and Hwang Hae-rym, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, August 15, 2008

SEOUL — South Korea can buy Global Hawk unmanned planes despite an international treaty that was previously thought to block any such transactions, a Ministry of Defense official said Wednesday.

The official said South Korea learned about the possibility during high-level security discussions July 23 in Washington.

However, whether the costly system is still in South Korea’s plans to upgrade its military technology hasn’t been decided.

"All we can say now is that the review is under way for the purchasing project, including the Global Hawk, as part of an arms improvement plan under the Defense Reform modernization program," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In January, the South Korean assembly cut 5.8 billion won (about $6.2 million) that was earmarked in its defense budget for eventual procurement of Global Hawks because buying them from U.S.-based Northrop Grumman would have violated the Missile Technology Control Regime, defense officials said at the time.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=56760



uhc comment: Good luck with that $6.2 million. According to wikipedia.org -->

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Hawk



Role Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
National origin United States
Manufacturer Northrop Grumman
Primary users United States Air Force
United States Navy
Unit cost US$123.2 million

[Jester Messiah]

1. I'm surprised they don't just engineer their own.

UAV's are relatively cheap (compared to manned aircraft) and getting cheaper all the time. A lot of countries have them now. I suspect if they don't get them from us, France or Israel will be happy to step up.