Partial suspension won't affect reconnaissance operations, JCS says
South Korea’s Army has temporarily suspended parts of its uncrewed vehicle flight operations following a military drone’s crash with a stationary helicopter the previous day, officials said Tuesday.
“The Army has partially suspended (its uncrewed vehicle flight operations) to investigate the accident,” Lt. Col. Yang Seung-kwan, a spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during a regular briefing. He declined to elaborate on the extent and the details of the suspended operations.
An Army official, who declined to be named, added that the operations have been suspended since Monday, indicating that the decision was made after the crash.
In response to the question asking whether it was a human error or a technical issue, the army official said that an accident investigation committee of some 20 officials was launched to probe the details of the accident.
The partial suspension will not disrupt ongoing reconnaissance operations or monitoring of North Korean military activities, Yang stressed. Other military assets have since been employed for reconnaissance operations, but Yang did not provide the details citing security issues.
On Monday, Israeli-made Heron, a large reconnaissance uncrewed aerial vehicle, crashed into a Surion utility helicopter that was parked at an airfield of an Army base in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province. The crash ignited a fire around 1 p.m.
The UAV was attempting to land on the runway of the aviation battalion at the base. There were no casualties, but both the helicopter and the UAV were destroyed due to the onboard aviation fuel.
When asked about any developments in the investigation, Yang said that a minor scratch was spotted on the exterior of another helicopter that was parked nearby.
The Army is looking at a minimum of 23 billion won ($15.8 million) in costs to replace the vehicles, with a single Heron drone valued at some 3 billion won and a Surion helicopter at around 20 billion won.
The military employs various assets to monitor North Korean military activities, including the Israeli-made Heron drones, the Air Force's Global Hawk UAVs and spy satellites.
All three Heron drones that the military acquired in 2016 are currently unable to be used in operations. One crashed in November last year, affected by North Korea’s GPS jamming attack, while another one is undergoing maintenance.
The military acquired three Heron drones and a ground control system for about 40 billion won in 2016, with each drone valued at some 3 billion won.
Monday’s incident comes less than two weeks after two South Korean KF-16 fighter jets accidentally bombed a village near the inter-Korean border, injuring 38 people, mostly civilians. The South Korean Air Force cited pilot error as being behind the accident. The two pilots, who have been accused of entering incorrect target coordinates during live-fire military drills, have been booked by the Defense Ministry’s investigators on charges of professional negligence resulting in injury.
The Defense Ministry on Tuesday said that it has partially resumed live-fire drills that were fully suspended after the fighter jet bombing accident earlier this month. The exercises involving rifles and smaller firearms at units conducting operations and boot camps, excluding those in Pocheon, the site of the accident, will be resumed. Other exercises will resume in phases, it added.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
