KAI Wins Second Phase Development Project for Baekdu Reconnaissance Aircraft

The improved Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft was developed by investing 300 billion KRW to import the Falcon 2000 model, an aircraft from Dassault Aviation in France, and modifying the fuselage at Korean Air.

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has won the contract for the second phase of the Baekdu Reconnaissance Aircraft system development project. The project period is from 2021 to 2026, with a total budget of approximately 870 billion KRW.

According to government officials on the 10th, through this second phase of the Baekdu Reconnaissance Aircraft system development project, four new reconnaissance aircraft will be introduced to replace the Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft introduced in the 1990s. The four Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft targeted for performance upgrades are expected to use Dassault Falcon 2000LXS business jets from the same company, as the French Dassault Falcon 2000S has been discontinued.

It was expected that Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Korean Air would compete in the Baekdu Reconnaissance Aircraft second phase system development project. However, Korean Air did not submit a proposal in the first announcement.

Our military currently possesses a total of six Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft. Four were introduced in the 1990s, and two new Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft were deployed last year. The name "Baekdu" was given because the detection range extends as far as Baekdu Mountain.

At the ‘KAI CEO Investor Day’ held on March 29 for major domestic and international institutional investors and analysts, Ahn Hyun-ho, CEO of Korea Aerospace Industries, stated plans to focus on the mass production of the KF-X fighter, domestic development of military transport aircraft, and modification and development of special mission aircraft.

Previously, the military conducted the first phase project from 2011 to 2018, spending over 400 billion KRW to develop two new Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft. They purchased French Dassault Falcon 2000S business jets and equipped them with information collection equipment and transmission/reception systems from LIG Nex1 and Hanwha Systems.

However, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) faced criticism for not standardizing during the first phase project, making delays inevitable. Standardization refers to the project procedure that specifies manufacturing methods. This is why DAPA continues to call the project a system development project in the second phase, even though it should be called a performance upgrade project.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.