US-South Korea Rift? Of Tiger Eyes & Industrial Spies

ROKAF F-15K(click to view full) In late November 2011, South Korea’s left-wing Hankyoreh newspaper reports that a combination of unauthorized examination of an F-15K’s Lockheed Martin “Tiger Eyes” IRST(InfraRed Search and Track) sensor, and concerns that a number of South Korean products contain copied technologies, have halted “strategic weapons exports” from the USA to South Korea. That reportedly includes the proposed RQ-4B Global Hawk deal. The allegations are single-source, and written by Hankyoreh, but they are also quite detailed: RQ-4 Global Hawk(click to view full) “In August, the United States sent an investigation team led by a deputy undersecretary of state to South Korea, where they pressed Air Force officials… about whether they had taken apart the Tiger Eyes without authorization. The Air Force responded that the seals on the Tiger Eyes had been damaged when they were installed… According to a source, however, South Korea demanded the United States produce evidence that they had illicitly examined the device, but the U.S. did not, saying that to do so could reveal an informant… the U.S. was reportedly shocked when South Korea pushed to export the [ALQ-200] to Pakistan, where it might be installed on Chinese-made fighters, and plans to export […]