RC-800B Baekdu [Falcon 2000]
The Baekdu aircraft are capable of intercepting radio signals from electronic devices. The acquisition process for the upgraded Baekdu planes, named after the Korean Peninsula's highest mountain, was proposed in 2009 after North Korea conducted its second underground nuclear test. Mount Baekdu, which straddles the China-North Korea border, is the highest and most sacred mountain on the Korean peninsula.
South Korea aimed to deploy the two new Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft by 2014. The platform for the new spy planes is the French Dassault Aviation’s Falcon 2000 jet, which is bigger in size compared to the military’s fleet of four spy planes built on the Hawker 800 platform.
Seoul's lack of ISR systems as a main reason why the leaders of South Korea and the United States agreed to delay the transfer of OPCON to Dec. 1, 2015. "By 2015, our military will be better equipped with intelligence-gathering, C4I, combined fire-control and precision-strike systems," Jang Kwang-il, deputy minister for policy, told reporters in June 2010. "That means the ROK military will have an improved capability to lead combat operations on the peninsula and be able to take over OPCON in a more stable manner."
The South Korean air force has four Raytheon Hawker 800XP aircraft for SIGINT operations, bought in 2000. As ways of collecting visual data, the South Korean military is currently operating the Geumgang (RC-800) and Saemae (RF-16) reconnaissance aircraft,
In July 2009, Defense Acquisition Program Administration released a request for proposals to local and foreign bidders, with winners to be announced by the end of the year. The military required the new aircraft be equipped with domestically built SIGINT equipment. But local precision electronics makers Samsung Thales and LIG Nex1 have developed SIGINT equipment only for ships. They have to make the naval equipment suitable for aircraft. Efforts to acquire independent technology and home-made reconnaissance aircraft been largely unsuccessful.
South Korea conducted a flight test of two new reconnaissance planes in the United States in April 2016 t tesswt upgrades to help the country better detect signs of North Korean missile launches and other threats. The planes, part of the enhanced Baekdu program, underwesnt their first flight tests in an airfield in Texas. The ROK military was seeking to adopt and deploy the two updated spy planes by 2017.
The Falcon 2000 MRA multi-mission “Maritime Multi-role Aircraft” is equipped with dedicated systems fulfilling the needs of navies worldwide. This Falcon version is developed for missions such as surveillance, reconnaissance, anti-surface attack, electronic warfare or training of fleet. It demonstrates remarkable performance, during all the flight phases and allows a highly operational flexibility. The Falcon 2000 MRA offers a very light logistical footprint. It can be easily deployed for overseas missions or to remote and isolated airfields.
The airframe of the Falcon 2000 has demonstrated its aerodynamic excellence, as well as its sturdiness under all climates and skies around the world. To date, around 500 Falcon 2000 business jets have been delivered and have logged more than 1.8 million flight hours.
A new signals intelligence aircraft based on the Falcon 2000 business jet was spotted in South Korea in November 2017. According to the local media, this was second intelligence aircraft based on the Falcon 2000 of the Republic of Korea Air Force. South Korea bought two French planes with spy equipment capable of intercepting radio messages from North Korea and detecting its missile launches, the Defence Acquisition Program Administration said in a statement in the beginning of 2017.
The new aircraft is a militarized specialty version of the popular Dassault Aviation Falcon 2000 business jet, with antennas added along the fuselage and radar/camera protrusions fore and aft.
South Korea will improve the performance of its Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft which monitors North Korea's wireless communication. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration(DAPA) held a meeting 26 June 2020 and approved planned projects to this effect. The committee approved an injection of 870 billion won from 2021 to 2026 to reinforce Baekdu aircraft's signal-collecting capabilities through domestic research and development.
