South Korea picks US L3Harris surveillance jets to counter North Korean missile threats
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South Korea has chosen L3Harris to supply four Bombardier Global 6500-based early warning aircraft fitted with Israel’s ELTA radar in a $2.2 billion deal. The move bolsters Seoul’s defenses against North Korea’s missile and drone threats while signaling deeper U.S.-Israel-South Korea defense ties.
South Korea has tapped L3Harris to deliver its next generation of airborne early warning and control aircraft, choosing a Bombardier Global 6500–based solution fitted with Israel’s ELTA EL/W-2085 radar in a four-jet buy worth 3.0975 trillion won, roughly 2.2 billion dollars. Yonhap News Agency first reported the selection on September 30, citing the Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s evaluation, with additional technical and program detail confirmed by specialist outlets The War Zone and The Aviationist. The decision shifts Seoul’s surveillance architecture toward a smaller, business-jet class platform that promises lower operating costs while adding a modern electronically scanned radar suite with 360-degree coverage. It also marks a departure from simply expanding the existing Boeing E-737 fleet acquired under the Peace Eye program a decade ago.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
South Korea’s new L3Harris Global 6500 jets will track drones and missiles with 360-degree radar while offering long-range endurance and lower operating costs (Picture source: L3Harris).
At the heart of the L3Harris offer is the EL/W-2085, a mature active electronically scanned array family that uses conformal, side-mounted arrays with supplemental antennas in the nose and tail to form a full azimuth picture. This configuration, already fielded on Israeli, Italian, and Singaporean platforms, trades the classic dorsal rotodome for lower drag and improved altitude performance, an approach well matched to the Global 6500’s high-subsonic cruise and long-range endurance. The selected configuration is a dual-band, Gallium Nitride AESA, a choice that aids long-range volume search while preserving track quality on small, low-flying targets. Together with modern IFF, ESM, and secure datalinks typically integrated on this class of system, the Republic of Korea Air Force gains a multi-sensor command node able to detect, identify, and manage a complex air picture in contested airspace.
L3Harris will missionize the Bombardier Global 6500 airframe, a large-cabin business jet whose clean-sheet wing, efficient turbofans, and high-altitude performance underpin long on-station times without tanker support in many scenarios. The choice of a bizjet also expands basing options thanks to shorter runway requirements and smaller footprint compared to an E-7-class airliner, easing dispersal and survivability during a crisis. While Korea previously explored a Gulfstream-based solution in the mid-2000s before settling on Boeing’s E-737, the Global 6500 platform paired with the EL/W-2085 essentially revives that concept with a current-production airframe and a radar lineage that has matured in service. DAPA intends to induct four aircraft by 2032, setting a clear schedule for integration with existing command and control networks.
L3Harris surpasses Sweden’s Saab, which offered the Erieye ER on the same Global 6500 under the GlobalEye banner. DAPA’s scoring, as relayed by Yonhap and summarized by both outlets, found no significant performance gap between the two radars but credited L3Harris with higher marks for operational suitability, domestic industry contribution, and projected operation and maintenance costs, while Saab led on acquisition terms. The outcome effectively cancels momentum behind a parallel U.S. Foreign Military Sales path for additional E-7s that had been greenlit in late 2024, and it clarifies a competition that reportedly saw Boeing’s airliner-based bid fall away earlier this year. For Seoul, the decision adds a second AEW&C type rather than enlarging a single fleet, a deliberate redundancy that hedges availability risk.
The EL/W-2085’s distributed array architecture is designed to search wide volumes while simultaneously maintaining high-fidelity tracks, a useful attribute against maneuvering or low-observable air-breathing threats. Side-looking primary arrays can dwell on sectors of interest without the mechanical scan penalties of a rotodome, and the nose-tail antennas close the coverage seams for continuous 360-degree situational awareness. In practical terms, that allows the mission crew to build a real-time air picture and push targeting-quality tracks over Link-type networks to fighters, Patriot and L-SAM batteries, and maritime task groups. On the Global 6500, the radar and mission suite are supported by modern power and cooling margins, and by a cabin that accommodates consoles for surveillance, battle management, and data fusion, turning the jet into a flying air-defense headquarters.
A four-jet AEW&C II fleet gives the ROKAF a credible ability to maintain persistent coverage during heightened alert and surge to overlapping orbits across both peninsular coasts when tensions spike. The combination of high-altitude patrols and electronically steered beams is particularly relevant to North Korea’s recent focus on cruise missiles, low-flying drones, and small UAS swarms that exploit terrain masking and carry small radar cross-sections. With rapid cueing and track handoff to shooters, the new aircraft closes surveillance gaps identified in South Korean media reporting about the legacy E-737 fleet’s mission availability, and they enhance joint kill-chains from counter-UAS to air defense. In peacetime, the jets provide a deterrent presence, knitting together civil and military radar feeds into a fused picture that shortens decision cycles for Seoul’s air defenders.
The choice reflects Seoul’s reading of a deteriorating regional air and missile threat. North Korea continues to test cruise missiles and field long-range artillery and drones, while China’s growing air activity around the peninsula stresses radar coverage and command bandwidth. By diversifying beyond an all-E-737 fleet, South Korea spreads industrial risk and creates a modular path for future upgrades, including software-defined radar modes and AI-assisted track management. The acquisition is part of a broader intelligence, surveillance, targeting, and reconnaissance build-out, one that complements new ground-based sensors and improves interoperability with U.S. and allied assets operating E-7s and GlobalEye-class platforms in the wider Indo-Pacific. The smaller jet’s lower through-life cost also positions Seoul to scale surveillance capacity if the security environment worsens.
The technical risk is bounded by the maturity of the EL/W-2085 family and the proven integration record of L3Harris on multiple special-mission platforms. With deliveries planned through 2032, Seoul has set a near-term target to field the first aircraft while standing up training, maintenance, and data integration pipelines. If performance and availability meet DAPA’s expectations, the AEW&C II program will not only harden South Korea’s air defense but also serve as a template for other mid-sized air forces weighing business-jet AEW&C against larger airliner-based solutions. For a country confronting simultaneous low-altitude threats and long-range precision fires, the ability to see first and manage the fight from a resilient, efficient airborne node could prove decisive.
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South Korea has chosen L3Harris to supply four Bombardier Global 6500-based early warning aircraft fitted with Israel’s ELTA radar in a $2.2 billion deal. The move bolsters Seoul’s defenses against North Korea’s missile and drone threats while signaling deeper U.S.-Israel-South Korea defense ties.
South Korea has tapped L3Harris to deliver its next generation of airborne early warning and control aircraft, choosing a Bombardier Global 6500–based solution fitted with Israel’s ELTA EL/W-2085 radar in a four-jet buy worth 3.0975 trillion won, roughly 2.2 billion dollars. Yonhap News Agency first reported the selection on September 30, citing the Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s evaluation, with additional technical and program detail confirmed by specialist outlets The War Zone and The Aviationist. The decision shifts Seoul’s surveillance architecture toward a smaller, business-jet class platform that promises lower operating costs while adding a modern electronically scanned radar suite with 360-degree coverage. It also marks a departure from simply expanding the existing Boeing E-737 fleet acquired under the Peace Eye program a decade ago.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
South Korea’s new L3Harris Global 6500 jets will track drones and missiles with 360-degree radar while offering long-range endurance and lower operating costs (Picture source: L3Harris).
At the heart of the L3Harris offer is the EL/W-2085, a mature active electronically scanned array family that uses conformal, side-mounted arrays with supplemental antennas in the nose and tail to form a full azimuth picture. This configuration, already fielded on Israeli, Italian, and Singaporean platforms, trades the classic dorsal rotodome for lower drag and improved altitude performance, an approach well matched to the Global 6500’s high-subsonic cruise and long-range endurance. The selected configuration is a dual-band, Gallium Nitride AESA, a choice that aids long-range volume search while preserving track quality on small, low-flying targets. Together with modern IFF, ESM, and secure datalinks typically integrated on this class of system, the Republic of Korea Air Force gains a multi-sensor command node able to detect, identify, and manage a complex air picture in contested airspace.
L3Harris will missionize the Bombardier Global 6500 airframe, a large-cabin business jet whose clean-sheet wing, efficient turbofans, and high-altitude performance underpin long on-station times without tanker support in many scenarios. The choice of a bizjet also expands basing options thanks to shorter runway requirements and smaller footprint compared to an E-7-class airliner, easing dispersal and survivability during a crisis. While Korea previously explored a Gulfstream-based solution in the mid-2000s before settling on Boeing’s E-737, the Global 6500 platform paired with the EL/W-2085 essentially revives that concept with a current-production airframe and a radar lineage that has matured in service. DAPA intends to induct four aircraft by 2032, setting a clear schedule for integration with existing command and control networks.
L3Harris surpasses Sweden’s Saab, which offered the Erieye ER on the same Global 6500 under the GlobalEye banner. DAPA’s scoring, as relayed by Yonhap and summarized by both outlets, found no significant performance gap between the two radars but credited L3Harris with higher marks for operational suitability, domestic industry contribution, and projected operation and maintenance costs, while Saab led on acquisition terms. The outcome effectively cancels momentum behind a parallel U.S. Foreign Military Sales path for additional E-7s that had been greenlit in late 2024, and it clarifies a competition that reportedly saw Boeing’s airliner-based bid fall away earlier this year. For Seoul, the decision adds a second AEW&C type rather than enlarging a single fleet, a deliberate redundancy that hedges availability risk.
The EL/W-2085’s distributed array architecture is designed to search wide volumes while simultaneously maintaining high-fidelity tracks, a useful attribute against maneuvering or low-observable air-breathing threats. Side-looking primary arrays can dwell on sectors of interest without the mechanical scan penalties of a rotodome, and the nose-tail antennas close the coverage seams for continuous 360-degree situational awareness. In practical terms, that allows the mission crew to build a real-time air picture and push targeting-quality tracks over Link-type networks to fighters, Patriot and L-SAM batteries, and maritime task groups. On the Global 6500, the radar and mission suite are supported by modern power and cooling margins, and by a cabin that accommodates consoles for surveillance, battle management, and data fusion, turning the jet into a flying air-defense headquarters.
A four-jet AEW&C II fleet gives the ROKAF a credible ability to maintain persistent coverage during heightened alert and surge to overlapping orbits across both peninsular coasts when tensions spike. The combination of high-altitude patrols and electronically steered beams is particularly relevant to North Korea’s recent focus on cruise missiles, low-flying drones, and small UAS swarms that exploit terrain masking and carry small radar cross-sections. With rapid cueing and track handoff to shooters, the new aircraft closes surveillance gaps identified in South Korean media reporting about the legacy E-737 fleet’s mission availability, and they enhance joint kill-chains from counter-UAS to air defense. In peacetime, the jets provide a deterrent presence, knitting together civil and military radar feeds into a fused picture that shortens decision cycles for Seoul’s air defenders.
The choice reflects Seoul’s reading of a deteriorating regional air and missile threat. North Korea continues to test cruise missiles and field long-range artillery and drones, while China’s growing air activity around the peninsula stresses radar coverage and command bandwidth. By diversifying beyond an all-E-737 fleet, South Korea spreads industrial risk and creates a modular path for future upgrades, including software-defined radar modes and AI-assisted track management. The acquisition is part of a broader intelligence, surveillance, targeting, and reconnaissance build-out, one that complements new ground-based sensors and improves interoperability with U.S. and allied assets operating E-7s and GlobalEye-class platforms in the wider Indo-Pacific. The smaller jet’s lower through-life cost also positions Seoul to scale surveillance capacity if the security environment worsens.
The technical risk is bounded by the maturity of the EL/W-2085 family and the proven integration record of L3Harris on multiple special-mission platforms. With deliveries planned through 2032, Seoul has set a near-term target to field the first aircraft while standing up training, maintenance, and data integration pipelines. If performance and availability meet DAPA’s expectations, the AEW&C II program will not only harden South Korea’s air defense but also serve as a template for other mid-sized air forces weighing business-jet AEW&C against larger airliner-based solutions. For a country confronting simultaneous low-altitude threats and long-range precision fires, the ability to see first and manage the fight from a resilient, efficient airborne node could prove decisive.
