Planes Will Spend A LOT Of Time Looking North...

Recent nuclear moves by its neighbor to the north likely stepped up South Korea's plans to buy a fleet of early-warning surveillance planes from Boeing.

Reuters reports a South Korean defense procurement commission selected Boeing's 737-based Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft for the $1.7 billion deal.

"Today the commission tabled and voted on the proposal to select Boeing's 737 for the Airborne Early Warning and Control project," the ministry said.

That will buy four AWACS planes... which South Korea will use to boost the country's presence on the Korean peninsula.

As Aero-News reported, the country had also considered the Elta Systems Group G-550 submitted Israel Aircraft Industries, but dropped that plane from competition in August.

South and North Korea remain technically at war, under the truce that ended the Korean War. Until recently, those tensions has eased considerably... but that was before North Korea tested a nuclear device last month.

The United States presently has around 30,000 troops south of the 38th parallel to ward off possible Northern aggression. South Korea is poised to take control over its 670,000 troops from the US sometime before 2012.

FMI: www.boeing.com