Boeing wins S. Korea spy plane contract

South Korea officially announced that Boeing Co. of the United States won the country`s highly coveted surveillance aircraft project.

Boeing will supply four B-737 spy planes to South Korea, Yonhap said Wednesday. South Korean negotiators said the contract price is about $1.59 billion.

South Korean officials said the country plans to deploy the first surveillance plane in 2011 and the other three in 2012, Yonhap said. Currently, South Korea does not have its own aircraft warning systems, relying on U.S. radar aircraft based in Okinawa, Japan.

In August, South Korea chose Boeing as the sole bidder for its early warning aircraft project after dropping Israeli manufacturer IAI ELTA from the competition, Yonhap said. Contract deliberations were extended until November because the two sides could not agree on a price.

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