AN INTERNATIONAL multi-million dollar competition is under way to supply South Korea with an indigenous airborne intelligence-gathering capability, beginning in three years.
The classified project, known in US military circles as Peace Pioneer, will reach a climax this month when South Korea is due to pick the payload contractors and business-aircraft manufacturer expected to provide the platform. Both are expected to be under contract before the end of this year.
The military-intelligence project is a key element of Yulgok, South Korea's five-year force-modernisation programme. It will acquire four signal-intelligence (SIGINT) mission aircraft and an equal number of militarised aircraft mounting synthetic-aperture (SAR) radar.
They will replace US Army RC-12/RU-21 Guardrail communications intelligence and electronics-signals intercept aircraft. The new turbofan-powered aircraft will also take over the role of aging SAR-equipped RV-1 Mohawks now used to protect Seoul. The US aircraft are to leave South Korea within the next one to three years.
Word of the project first leaked out in 1994. It was reported that South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff were under fire for their handling of the eight-aircraft buy, valued at $625 million.
Recently, the Pentagon disclosed South Korea's move to acquire up to eight tactical-reconnaissance aircraft, including four Raytheon Hawkers, and related ground-based equipment worth an estimated $550 million (Flight International, 20-26 September)
The Pentagon names E-Systems and Loral Defense Systems as the prime contractors. What the Pentagon does not say is that E-Systems, Raytheon Aircraft and Loral are still locked in a competition with other US companies. Rival bids involve Canadian, French, German and Israeli firms.
Informed sources say that E-Systems was selected over TRW's ESL and Raytheon Electromagnetic Systems to represent the USA in the continuous SIGINT payload competition which also includes Thomson-CSF and Rafael of Israel, supported by Litif, the German subsidiary of Litton Industries.
Loral "...had been the odds-on favourite until recently" to win the SAR work, but a rival bid submitted by Canada's MacDonald-Dettwiler has gained ground, the sources add.
All SIGINT and SAR manufacturers were directed by the South Korean Government to recommend airborne platforms. Three business aircraft are still being considered: the $12 million Raytheon Hawker 800, the $10 million Cessna Citation III and the $15 million Dassault Falcon 50.
E-Systems, which originally proposed using the Citation III, switched to the Hawker 800 after Raytheon's purchase of E-Systems.
Thomson-CSF and MacDonald- Dettwiler are tied to the Cessna aircraft, while Rafael/Litif is believed to favour the Hawker 800.
Sources say, that the Hawker 800 cannot handle the Loral radar's power needs, without running the auxiliary power unit full-time. "Realistically, Loral must go with the larger Falcon 50," they conclude. A purchase including mixes of aircraft is possible, but not favoured.
The first SIGINT mission aircraft would reach South Korea by the end of 1998, and the initial SAR-equipped aircraft would become operational a year later.
Source: Flight International
