North Korea Modified Russian Aircraft To Build Air Alert Aircraft

JAKARTA - North Korea appears to be making progress in turning Russia's heavy transport aircraft into the country's first air early warning platform (AEW), according to a report released on Wednesday, based on a commercial satellite image.

Joseph Dempsey, a research association at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, conducted an analysis based on the latest satellite imagery taken against the Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport.

In the report, Dempsey identified the aircraft as one of three Il-76 North Korea received from Russia in the 1990s and noted that the fuselage had recently been under a closed structure indicating the possible role of a special mission for the fuselage.

However, satellite imagery taken on September 8 showed the plane was not covered with two vertical buffers on the plane consistent with the possible installation of the radar dome.

"Other newest images also show what appears to be a strake inventory added to the lower back of the fuselage," the report said.

The report conveys it is interesting that such a strategy is a common feature in most other Il-76 AEW conversions to improve flight characteristics.

The AEW system detects enemy aircraft and ships using radar that acts as eyes in the sky'. Russia and China have modified Il-76 to be used as AEW aircraft.

The AEW aircraft will provide useful complements to North Korea's existing ground-based long-range radar network, stressing the country relies mostly on the outdated Soviet system, as well as some systems from China.