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21 September 2024

North Korea – A new eye in the sky?

Joseph Dempsey

Conversion work on one of the three Ilyushin Il-76 Candid aircraft that Russia delivered in the early 1990s is being carried out at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport. Though operated by state-owned carrier Air Koryo, these aircraft are used in paratrooper drills – and the past application of temporary camouflage has indicated their availability for military dual role.

In late 2023, one of the three aircraft was moved to a separate maintenance area at the airport with a new fenced area around it. This additional layer of security and the subsequent appearance of a covered structure on top of the fuselage suggested a possible special-mission role for the airframe.

An obvious option is that the aircraft is being converted for the AEW role or is at least an AEW radar testbed. There appears, for instance, to be consistency in size and position of the rotating-radar-mounting points seen in other Il-76 AEW conversions, such as those by Russia (A-50U Mainstay and A-100), China (KJ-2000) and Iraq (Adnan-2).

The mounting points had, until very recently, only been under cover in available satellite imagery, with no official reporting of what seemed a secretive project, even by North Korean standards.

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