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

A South Korean official confirmed an oil leak from one of the military’s RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk drones besides finding a defective part in another.

An oil leak was found in the landing gear of one aircraft, with a core control sensor-related problem detected at another, an official was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

It remains unconfirmed whether the flaw was present at the time of their delivery or it has occurred during their operation here.

South Korea's military authorities are in consultations with Global Hawk’s manufacturer Northrop Grumman, a defense source said.

Seoul placed an order for four of these drones for $847 million in 2011. Delivery of the aircraft was completed in September.

The military plans to deploy them starting in the latter half of next year, following preparatory procedures. "(We) think there would be no problem in putting them into normal operation by the target period," an Air Force official said, refusing to go into details.

Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced plans to acquire a system used to analyze imagery taken by Global Hawk aircraft by December. It is presently upgrading the identification friend or foe (I.F.F.) system installed on the RQ-4 to Mode 5 in line with U.S. requirements.