S Korea to Upgrade Peace Krypton Surveillance Aircraft

The U.S. Statement on Friday approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Republic of Korea of items and services to extend follow-on support to its Peace Krypton reconnaissance aircraft for an estimated cost of $250 million.

The Republic of Korea has requested to buy items and services to extend follow-on support to its Peace Krypton reconnaissance aircraft. The principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, MD.

Included are Ground System Modernization (GSM) and sustainment of Prime Mission Equipment (PME); Field Service Representatives (FSR); minor modifications and upgrades; Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS); spares and repair and return of parts; publications and technical documentation; U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistical support services; and other related elements of logistics and program support.

The Peace Krypton system is comprised of militarized business jets and ground stations that process data from the aircraft. The mission of the Peace Krypton system program is to collect reconnaissance imagery of selected areas during long range missions using an airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery intelligence collection system.

Seoul’s Peace Krypton “spy plane” is a militarized version of Raytheon's Hawker 800XP, reclassified as an RC-800 Hawker, a mid-size, twin-jet corporate aircraft that has been refurbished into a tactical and intelligence platform. The RC-800's primary mission is to conduct both geospatial and signals intelligence.