By Choi He-suk
The South Korean military plans to develop an unmanned combat aerial vehicle, sources said Tuesday.
According to reports, the military is pushing plans for a 500 billion won ($442.7 million) project to develop unmanned combat aircraft along with unmanned reconnaissance aerial vehicles.
“A project for developing unmanned combat aircraft is in the works along with the unmanned reconnaissance aerial vehicle project. If development goes under way now, deployment could be possible in 2021,” an unnamed military official was quoted as saying by the local media.
Seoul’s military has been conducting feasibility studies on unmanned combat aerial vehicles through the Agency for Defense Development since 2009, and is said to have recently approved related plans.
Although Seoul is looking to equip the aircraft to have higher performance than existing unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the MQ-1, that have been in service since the 1990s in the U.S. military, the Korean version’s attack capabilities are likely to be limited by the missile agreement between Seoul and Washington that encompasses unmanned aircrafts.
Under the agreement, Seoul is restricted from developing missiles with payloads exceeding 500 kilograms, and the same restriction is applied to the aircraft being discussed.
Seoul, however, is discussing the issue with Washington to ease the restrictions to allow for more realistic defenses against North Korea’s missile capabilities.
(cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)