South Korea Spends $200M on RC-800 Fleet Maintenance & Ground Stations
On Sept 6, 2006, the US DSCA(Defense Security Cooperation Agency) announced South Korea’s request for continuing support of their RC-800 Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft, as well as the accompanying Reconnaissance Ground Stations that process and analyze the data gathered. Work will include contractor services, maintenance, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, communication support, prime mission equipment (PME), technical support, contractor engineering, and other related elements of program support. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $200 million.
RC-800?!?
The RC-800 is a militarized specialty version of the popular Raytheon Hawker 800XP (previously known as the BAe 125-800 series) business jet, with antennas added along the fuselage and radar/camera protrusions fore and aft. It is used by South Korea for tactical reconnaissance, surveillance and SIGINT (SIGnals INTelligence) tasks, and 8 specially-equipped aircraft were delivered in 2000. They are believed to be forward-based at Seongnam.
An exact picture can be found in Scramble’s ROKAF Order of Battle near the bottom.
The principal contractors will be Lockheed Martin Company in Goodyear, AZ (SAR radar); and L-3 Communications Company in Greenville, TX. Contractor representatives will travel to Korea during the program definition phase, and there are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.
Related Contracts
Feb 14/07: Lockheed announces a $28 million contract for continued support of RC-800 reconnaissance aircraft and associated ground stations for the Republic of Korea’s Peace Krypton system, which collects reconnaissance imagery of selected areas during long-range missions.
Lockheed Martin’s work scope includes upgrading, sustainment and maintenance of the fleet’s synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This includes spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, communication support, prime mission equipment, technical support, engineering, as well as other elements of program support. Under a related contract, Lockheed Martin also supports and maintains the Hawker aircraft. The majority of the work for this contract will be performed in Goodyear, AZ over the duration of the 3-year project.
