A Taiwan air force E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft flies overhead in Pingtung City, Taiwan, near Pingtung Airport air base on January 5, 2025. (Claire Jenq/Stars and Stripes)
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea appears close to completing its first airborne early warning aircraft, satellite imagery showed, an asset that experts say 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 U.S. 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 specializing in North Korea studies, reported Tuesday 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, but not used on U.S. or Russian aircraft. “This could indicate support or influence from China, although the triangle alone is not conclusive proof,” the website said.
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.
Jung Chang Wook, head of the Korea Defense Study Forum think tank in Seoul, said the aircraft would detect and track the movements of enemy planes and other military assets and relay information to land-based centers. If it has technology to distribute such information to its air and other assets and command their operations, it will help North Korea conduct military operations in a much faster manner.
“It’s like the North Korean air forces opening their eyes,” Jung said.
He said that North Korea would need at least four airborne early warning aircraft to monitor South Korea 24 hours a day, as they can take turns to perform surveillance missions, undergo maintenance and conduct training. He said South Korea has four U.S.-made airborne early warning and control aircraft and plans to buy four more.
In late 2023, North Korea placed its first spy satellite into orbit, but foreign experts question its capability.
