Northrop’s Sale of Global Hawk Spy Drones to South Korea Stalls

By Tony Capaccio Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — The sale of as many as four Northrop Grumman Corp. Global Hawk drones to help improve South Korea’s reconnaissance capability may have stalled. The delay, combined with a potential reduction in U-2 surveillance flights over and near North Korea, might degrade U.S. and South Korea ability to monitor events in the communist regime, lawmakers said in a report accompanying the $662 billion defense policy bill for fiscal 2012. They didn’t elaborate on the reasons behind the delay. The report said only that the possible sale “appears to have stalled” and that House and Senate defense committee lawmakers “intend to assess whether the risk of a gap in intelligence collection in Korea is significant and to examine alternative capabilities.” North Korean’s leadership is undergoing a leadership transition after Kim Jong Il died Dec. 17 of a heart attack brought on by mental and physical strain, the official Korean Central News Agency said. His son, Kim Jong Un, is the designated successor. South Korea was planning to buy at least one Global Hawk “to be able to have intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance type assets to look into North Korea,” General Walter Sharp, then-commander of U.S. […]
Northrop’s Sale of Global Hawk Spy Drones to South Korea Stalls