KAI awarded contract to deliver four Baekdu-II ISR aircraft systems to the RoKAF

On 17 December, Korea Aerospace Industries announced it won a contract to develop and manufacture four Baekdu-II ISR aircraft system, which will be based on the Dassault Falcon 2000LXS (shown here). (Korea Aerospace Industries)

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has been awarded a KRW800 billion (USD675 million) contract to develop and manufacture four intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft systems for the Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF) under the second phase of the Baekdu project.

The contract, awarded by South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and announced by KAI on 17 December, is due to be completed by the end of 2026 and will develop the new ISR system that will replace the four Hawker 800SIG Peace Pioneer reconnaissance aircraft that first entered service with the RoKAF in 2001.

The company had previously announced in early November that the new Baekdu ISR aircraft will be based on the Dassault Falcon 2000LXS business jet and that mission systems will be developed in co-operation with LiG Nex1.

KAI said that it will be the integrator for the mission avionics, specifically the intelligence-gathering equipment and transmission/reception systems, and lead the development of ground systems as well as the integrated system support elements.

As reported by Janes , KAI had previously signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Dassault in October for aircraft support and technical co-operation to speed up preparations for the Baekdu-II project.

The RoKAF already operates two modified Falcon 2000S in a signal intelligence (SIGINT) role, which were procured under the first Baekdu project between 2011 and 2018.

The Falcon 2000S Baekdu aircraft feature mission systems from LIG Nex1 and Hanwha Systems, which were integrated by L3Harris Technologies in the United States. According to