The North Korean KCNA news Agency reported that the Secretary General of the Workers' Party of Korea, Chairman of the State Affairs of the DPRK, respected Comrade Kim Jong-un, on March 25 and 26, 2025, " led the affairs of the Association of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and the electronic warfare research team engaged in scientific research in the field of defense." In particular, Kim Jong-un was shown for the first time in flight a prototype of a North Korean long-range radar detection and control aircraft built on the basis of the Soviet Il-76MD military transport aircraft.
A prototype of the North Korean long-range radar detection and control aircraft, built on the basis of the Soviet IL-76MD military transport aircraft, 03/26/2025 (c) KCNA
The conversion of the IL-76MD aircraft into the first North Korean AWACS and control aircraft conducted at Pyongyang Airport has been known since 2023, and the work was completed by early 2025. According to the now-published clear photographs of the aircraft that has completed the conversion, it is equipped with a non-rotating fuselage fairing, a "dish", with presumably a triangular fixed antenna with headlamps placed in it. Thus, the North Korean AWACS radar system is ideologically analogous to the Israeli IAI Elta EL/W-2090 radar system installed on A-50EI aircraft built for India, or the Chinese KJ-2000 complex, also made on the airframe of the Il-76MD aircraft. The prototype of the North Korean AWACS and control aircraft does not carry any tail numbers (or they are retouched in the pictures).
A prototype of the North Korean long-range radar detection and control aircraft, built on the basis of the Soviet IL-76MD military transport aircraft, 03/26/2025 (c) KCNA
Satellite image of a prototype North Korean long-range radar detection and control aircraft, built on the basis of the Soviet IL-76MD military transport aircraft, at Pyongyang Airport, 03/14/2025 (c) Maxar Technologies
