S. Korea to acquire at least one Global Hawk from U.S. this month: Source

글로벌 호크, 국내 인도... '첩보위성급'으로 북 들여다본다

To improve South Korea's capability to monitor and predict North Korea's military movements,... the country announced earlier this year that it was acquiring four U.S. Global Hawk spy planes.
One of them is said to arrive in South Korea before the end of the year.
Kim Ji-yeon reports.
A source within the South Korean military has confirmed that, among the four R-Q4 Global Hawks Seoul ordered from the U.S.,... one is set to arrive in South Korea this month.
The remaining three are due in the country by early next year at the latest.
The spy plane is touted as a powerful U.S. strategic asset.
Since it's an unmanned aerial vehicle, it can stay airborne for up to 40 hours at a time... at an altitude of up to 20 kilometers.
And since it uses radar technology to collect data on moving objects on the ground... it's unaffected by weather conditions.
With the deployment of the Global Hawks, the planes are expected to greatly enhance South Korea's capability to survey North Korea's military actions.
"Once it's in the air... it can carry out surveillance missions across distances as long as 2-hundred kilometers,-- half the size of North Korea's territory. When there's an unusual movement detected, a ballistic missile for instance, it could survey the area with more accuracy than any other means."
Data collected is then transmitted in real time... for it to be analyzed manually.
It's expensive to acquire one -- a Global Hawk is estimated to be worth nearly 210 million U.S. dollars,... double that of a F-35A stealth fighter jet.
"The Global Hawks' arrival on the peninsula is expected to spark a fierce backlash from North Korea... which criticized South Korea in August for purchasing them as a 'rash, risky military act.'
Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News."

#Hawk #spy #military

Arirang News Facebook:

arirang,tv,south,korea,korean,SouthKorea,ArirangNews,news,Seoul,arirangtv,아리랑tv,아리랑뉴스,뉴스,북한,northkorea,대한민국,글로벌,호크,국내,인도,첩보,위성,정찰,acquire,Global,Hawk,U.S.,predict,NorthKorea,military,movement,spy,plane,reconnaissance,