A taegeuk mark symbolizing Korea along with the letters of the South Korean Air Force were clearly seen on the side of the aircraft Thursday last week. The early warning aircraft detects enemy movements from a distance for reporting to a ground base and controls the combat planes of friendly forces.
Seoul decided in 2006 to purchase four E-737s for 1.6 billion U.S. dollars. The first one will be delivered in June and the remaining three by year`s end.
Boeing’s E-X program manager Randy Price said, “A ground radar base has difficulty detecting flying objects behind mountains and is vulnerable to aircraft flying at a low altitude, such as the AN-2 of North Korea, but the E-737s can overcome these shortcomings because they detect enemy flight in the air.”
“They are movable radars fitting the terrain of the Korean Peninsula.”
A 10-meter long antenna called MESA is attached to the top of the aircraft. Price said, “Previously, a radar in the shape of a cylinder circled every 12 seconds to detect enemy objects. In contrast, the MESA radar shoots beams in all directions simultaneously, so there is no blind spot in monitoring.”
An early warning airplane can monitor all objects in the airspace above the Korean Peninsula simultaneously. Seoul, however, has purchased four units as one airplane can fly for eight hours considering fuel and crew fatigue.
If three planes take turns in operations on a given day, the remaining one can undergo maintenance for the next operation.
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