Cabinet approves establishment of new drone command

Defense

Published: 20 Jun. 2023, 17:41

Cabinet approves establishment of new drone command

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo speaks at a Cabinet meeting at the Central Government Complex in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Tuesday, where a bill establishing a new drone operations command was approved. [YONHAP]

South Korea's Cabinet on Tuesday approved the establishment of a drone operations command in September to counter potential North Korean unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) infiltrations.

South Korean military officials have said the new command will operate under an aggressive counter-drone doctrine that would see the South send 10 or more UAVs to Pyongyang for every North Korean drone that enters the South.

At Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, where the bill establishing the drone command was approved, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo called on the military to make full preparations for a successful launch of the new command so that it can respond “effectively and overwhelmingly” to future drone-based incursions.

The new drone operations command forms part of South Korean defensive measures adopted in response to the incursion of five North Korean drones that crossed the inter-Korean border in December last year.

One of the North Korean drones is believed to have infiltrated a no-fly zone over the presidential office in central Seoul.

The prime minister noted that “the North used unmanned aerial vehicles to trespass on our airspace” and that “even now, [North Korean] provocations that threaten peace and security on the Korean Peninsula have not ceased.”

He asked the Defense Ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to “make every effort to ensure the launch of the new drone command goes smoothly so that it can perfectly execute its duties from the beginning.”

According to an anonymous military official cited by Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean military “has internally determined to send 10 or more drones to Pyongyang and have them fly over key targets there for [every] one drone North Korea sends into Seoul airspace.”

While Defense Ministry spokesman Jeon Ha-kyu declined to specify the new command’s internal doctrine, he emphasized that South Korea’s military will undertake countermeasures in the event of another North Korean drone infiltration to exercise its “right to self-defense.”

The military plans to acquire 100 small UAVs with a flight range that can cover the whole of the North by the end of this month, according to the source cited by Yonhap.

Each of the drones will be equipped with a GPS-based navigational instrument, a flight guidance system and an automated information deletion program if it crashes within North Korea.

The military is also believed to have already purchased drones for longer-term reconnaissance operations.

According to the Defense Ministry, the new drone command will be charged with carrying out a wide variety of missions, including surveillance, reconnaissance and potential strike operations, psychological and electromagnetic warfare, as well as future drone development over the course of operations.

The North Korean drone incursions in December revealed the limitations of the South’s aerial defenses and detection systems against the North’s small UAVs, which were able to evade interception despite South Korean efforts to shoot them down.

They also raised concerns that the North would be able to carry out strike operations against key facilities in the South in the event of hostilities.

In response, South Korea has moved to implement countermeasures against drone infiltration attempts, such as regular air defense exercises and procuring systems that jam drone signals.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]