S. Korea Develops Attack Drones to Counter North’s UAVs
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South Korean researchers are testing unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, to take on the threat of the fleet of military drones North Korea is believed to possess.
North Korea’s military power was on display at a recent celebration in the capital, Pyongyang. That included what appears to be a fleet of drones, some of which might already have crossed the border.
South Korea’s defense ministry says that since 2014, it has recovered four crashed North Korean drones. One of these small UAVs reportedly flew a reconnaissance mission over downtown Seoul. While these appear to have only taken pictures, some security analysts worry that weaponized drones could come next.
On August 22nd, a North Korean surveillance drone crossed the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and flew several times over a South Korean military outpost without being intercepted. It remains unclear whether the drone was identified or not. Yonhap News reports that it was only detected on radar but was never seen, leading to some criticism of South Korean air defense capabilities. “Even in the DMZ area, any North Korean soldier or vehicles that crossed the military demarcation line are immediately subject to warning shots or artillery fire,” one government official said, criticizing the South Korean military’s inability to intercept the surveillance UAV.
Such criticism is perhaps what led the research group at the science and technology graduate school KAIST to test new unmanned capabilities. Shim Hyun-chul, head of the research group, said confronting North Korea’s or any enemy’s UAVs will not be easy. “Drones are very small, drones are very hard to detect, even if you detect it there are very few things that can be done,” he said.
One of the autonomous drones that is being developed pertains to a multi-rotor UAV that would be capable of dropping a net over an enemy drone. This would presumably lead to a tangling up scenario, thus causing malfunctioning of its rotors.
Shim said all his team can do is perfect its drone technology faster than the enemy perfects theirs.
