South Korea is requesting to buy four Northrop Grumman-made (NYSE: NOC) Global Hawk drones from the U.S. government in a proposed $1.2 billion foreign military sales agreement.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said it notified Congress of the potential transaction Dec. 24, which would include the Raytheon-made (NYSE: RTN) Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite.
If the sale goes through, South Korea would receive the Global Hawk Block 30 variant.
DSCA said South Korea is scheduled to assume primary responsibility for intelligence gathering on the Korean Peninsula from the U.S-led Combined Forces Command in 2015 and would use the drones for ISR missions (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance).
According to FlightGlobal, South Korea would also become the second international customer in the Global Hawk program after Germany.
Raytheon’s EISS system is standard equipment on the Block 20 variant, Zach Rosenberg writes for FlightGlobal.
