Israel, South Korea to co-operate on unmanned airborne ISTAR

Israel and South Korea are to co-operate in the field of unmanned airborne intelligence, surveillance, targeting and reconnaissance (ISTAR), with a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on 15 March.

Showcased at ADEX 2017, KAI’s stealth UCAV is one of a number of future unmanned platforms that could be afforded an ISTAR capability under an MOU agreed between the Korean manufacturer and Elbit Systems of Israel. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)

The MOU between Elbit Systems and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is geared at developing future unmanned airborne ISTAR capabilities for the Republic of Korea (RoK) Armed Forces and potential international customers.

“Elbit Systems is a leading [unmanned aircraft system] UAS manufacturer with a portfolio of more than 10 different unmanned platforms, from tactical drones up to 1.5 tonne medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAS. Elbit Systems’ UAS are in operational service for decades and have been selected by more than 30 different customers in five continents, among them Israel, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, France, Brazil, Chile, and others,” the Israeli manufacturer said.

While no particular platform solutions were touted in the announcement, KAI is developing a suite of UAS capabilities for the RoK Armed Forces, to be used primarily for ISTAR purposes. KAI programmes and platforms revealed over recent years comprise the Next Corps UAS, Tactical UAS, and ‘stealth’ unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).

The RoK in general and the Rok Air Force (RoKAF) in particular already fields a strong ISR and ISTAR capability, with four Boeing E-737 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) Peace Eye platforms, two Dassault Falcon 2000 ISR platforms, eight Hawker 800 Peace Krypton signals intelligence, and ISR platforms. Further to these already established airframes, the RoKAF is seeking a business jet-based multiple-intelligence surveillance aircraft. With this requirement first reported by Janes