SEOUL (AP) – North Korea appears close to completing its first airborne early warning aircraft, satellite imagery showed, an asset that experts said will sharply bolster the country’s air force power when it’s deployed.
North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs pose a significant security threat to South Korea, the United States (US) and others. But its aerial surveillance capability is far behind those of its rivals, while most of its fighter jets and other military aircraft are aging.
38 North, a website specialising in North Korea studies, reported that recent commercial satellite imagery showed an Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft parked at a Pyongyang airport, with a large radome mounted on top of the fuselage.
A radome refers to a structure that encircles a radar system.
It called the aircraft’s near-completion “a significant upgrade for an air force that has not seen new airborne capabilities in years.”
The website said the radome has a distinctive triangle design on top, similar to what is seen on some Chinese airborne early warning aircraft.
The aircraft, which was one of three IL-76s previously used by North Korea’s national airline, Air Koryo, was moved into the airport’s maintenance facility in October 2023 before work began on a section on top of the fuselage, the website said.
Last November, the aircraft, then without the radome, was moved into the adjacent hangar.
It remained there until late this February, when it appeared outside the hangar with the radome mounted, according to the website.
Head of the Korea Defense Study Forum think tank in Seoul Jung Chang Wook said the aircraft would detect and track the movements of enemy planes and other military assets and relay information to land-based centres.
