South Korea Wednesday named US aerospace giant Boeing as winner of a 1.6 billion dollar deal to provide four AWACS early warning aircraft, officials said. The deal was endorsed at a defense acquisition committee headed by Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung, the ministry's Defense Acquisition Program Agency said.
"The contract price will be slightly below 1.6 billion dollars," agency spokesman Park Sung-Soo told AFP, adding a formal contract would be signed by the end of this month.
South Korea chose Boeing as sole bidder in August, dropping Israeli aircraft maker IAI ELTA.
The project will provide four spy planes, with the first two deployed in 2009 and the other two in 2011.
South Korea is still technically at war with North Korea since the 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty, and tensions have grown with the North's missile and nuclear tests this year.
Seoul currently relies on US surveillance aircraft based in Okinawa in Japan. It was criticised for insufficient advance knowledge and slow verification of the October 9 nuclear test.
