[Exclusive] 'Defective Global Hawk' to Receive Compensation... First Case of US FMS

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] Our military will receive compensation worth 5.6 billion KRW from the U.S. government and U.S. defense contractors due to defects in unmanned reconnaissance drones.

According to the military on the 27th, the South Korean military recently decided to receive compensation of 4.4 billion KRW from Northrop Grumman, the manufacturer of the high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance drone ‘Global Hawk,’ and about 1.2 billion KRW from the U.S. government. Various defects were found in the four Global Hawks delivered to Korea so far, and the initial delivery schedule was not met, causing several damages to our military. The Global Hawk was purchased through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system, which is a government-to-government contract for civilian-produced weapons, and this is the first time compensation has been made for weapons procured through this method.

The military signed a contract worth 1.1 trillion KRW (about 200 billion KRW per unit) with the U.S. government in August 2018 to introduce a ‘set’ of four Global Hawks. However, the U.S. government delivered the first unit only in December 2019, more than a year later than planned, citing reasons such as enhanced cybersecurity and technical defects. Subsequently, all four units were delivered by last year.

However, problems were found not only in the delayed delivery but also in the aircraft themselves. The third unit was equipped with a defective communication cable and could not fly. The fourth unit experienced oil leakage in the landing gear, and the radome used for video recording was installed in a damaged state. Additionally, the sensor control equipment was defective, making normal mission execution impossible. The four delivered Global Hawks ultimately flew only 70% (600 hours) of the initial one-year target flight time (850 hours) by early last year.

The establishment of the video interpretation processing system (TCPED), which analyzes footage taken by the Global Hawk, was also delayed. TCPED was scheduled to be established at Osan Air Base in September 2019, but negotiations between the U.S. government and the developer were delayed, and it was only completed in May last year.

In response, the Ministry of National Defense officially protested to the U.S. side through the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD) meeting in September last year. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration negotiated compensation plans with the U.S. government more than 20 times. Eventually, the U.S. side agreed that Northrop Grumman would pay 4.4 billion KRW for defects found during test flights, and the U.S. government would provide free support for Air Force operational personnel training, equipment and consumables, and engine control software upgrades. The Ministry of National Defense estimates that the U.S. side’s compensation plan amounts to more than 5.6 billion KRW.

A government official said, "Since Korea is the first country to introduce the Global Hawk aside from the U.S., negotiations were not easy," and added, "Once the defective equipment is replaced, normal mission execution will be possible."