Kim Jong Un's regime appears to be converting a Russian-made military transport plane into an airborne command center equipped with a powerful radar, potentially enhancing its missile testing and surveillance capabilities, new satellite imagery has revealed.
The suspected modifications to the Soviet-designed Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane was identified by an open-source intelligence analyst, who spotted the aircraft at Pyongyang's international airport on November 30.
This development, if confirmed, could mark a significant advancement in North Korea's military capabilities, allowing Kim Jong Un's regime to carry out surveillance over an expanded area.
Decker Eveleth, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said the Il-76 was parked next to a maintenance hangar, where a large object was seen newly affixed to the top of the plane's fuselage, according to his analysis of satellite photographs from imagery provider Planet.
Eveleth said the hardware was possibly a mount for a rotating radar dome, or rotodome, typically constructed as part of an airborne early warning and control (AWACS) system on an airborne early warning aircraft.
AWACS planes like the U.S. Air Force's Boeing E-3 Sentry or the U.S. Navy's carrier-capable E-2 Haweye, built by Northrop Grumman, scan the skies for enemy planes and track projectiles such as missiles.
NK Pro, a specialist news and analysis service focusing on North Korea, confirmed the installation was underway last month. "The project could have started in late September when construction began on a barrier around the plane's parking spot," the website said.
Since its introduction to the Soviet Air Force in the 1970s, the Il-76 has seen wide use by governments around the world, including in China. Russia supplied three heavy-lift aircraft to North Korea for its national carrier, Air Koryo, but only one appears to be undergoing the AWACS upgrade.
"The other two have appeared at the maintenance hangar next to the converted plane's parking spot in recent months, but both were parked in the open on an apron across from the airport's main terminal as of Dec. 13," reported NK Pro.
The potential introduction of an airborne early warning aircraft into North Korea's fleet could significantly enhance its air defense network, which is currently dependent on older, stationary radar sites, Eveleth said.
It comes at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula after Kim oversaw North Korea's first successful spy satellite launch, a move that angered the South and its ally, the United States, for using ballistic missile technology prohibited by U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Seoul's intelligence service said Pyongyang likely received help from Moscow.
The North Korean and Russian foreign ministries didn't return separate requests for comment about their alleged collaboration.
Eveleth has also expressed doubts about North Korea's technical capacity for such an undertaking.
"There is no evidence as of yet that the Russians have transferred this technology to the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]," he wrote in a recent post on X, formerly Twitter.
"Given what we know of the state of DPRK radar technology, an AWACS would be a big undertaking for them. Also notable that the DPRK is using one of their few Il-76s for this mission," he observed.
Earlier this year, North Korea launched two new reconnaissance drones, which appeared to be based on the U.S.'s General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper and the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk.
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Aadil Brar is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian ... Read more
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