Defects Found in $812 million South Korean Global Hawk UAVs

All four Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft that the South Korean Air Force procured from the United States have defects in them, a ruling party lawmaker claimed Thursday.

Rep. Ahn Gyu-back of the Democratic Party said during a parliamentary audit that defects have been found in the drones an average of 10 times in each, Yonhap News quoted him as saying.

From December 2019 through September last year, South Korea brought in four Global Hawks under a project worth 965.9 billion won (US$812 million).

"There have been too many defects given the short period since they were rolled out here," Ahn said. "We should thoroughly check the management of the Global Hawks and quickly craft measures to ensure their stable operation."

The lawmaker also said that the military found a malfunctioning part responsible for transmitting imagery to the ground in one of the Global Hawks, but it has yet to find what went wrong.

Also read: Oil Leak, Defective Parts in South Korean RQ-4 Global Hawk Drones