Tag: drones

The U.S. and the ROK demonstrating the future of warfare to the North Koreans:

Unmanned aerial vehicles from the United States and South Korea recently teamed up to improve their combat effectiveness via first-of-their-kind live-fire drills, according to the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul. The training took place Friday, a day after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile off its eastern coast, although the timing is unrelated, according to email Monday from 7th Air Force spokeswoman Master Sgt. Rachelle Coleman. A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper dropped an inert, 558-pound GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, using reconnaissance data from a South Korean air force RQ-4B Global Hawk, according to Coleman and a ministry news release three days earlier.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This would be the next logical step in escalation from North Korea. With that said they have already flown drones multiple times over South Korea in the past showing how hypocritical their claims against the ROK now are:

Inter-Korean tensions are escalating over propaganda leaflets, as North Korea threatened, Monday, to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to drop leaflets over Seoul. The North also reiterated its claim that the South Korean military recently sent leaflet-distributing drones into its territory.

“It would be interesting to see how they will bark if a drone appears in Seoul and scatters leaflets,” Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said in a statement via the North’s mouthpiece Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Noting a hypothetical situation, she said, “An unidentified drone appears over Seoul and scatters leaflets denouncing ‘the puppet Yoon,’” apparently referring to President Yoon Suk Yeol. “Our military, individual organizations, or any individual have not flown any drones, cannot confirm such actions, and do not consider it worth responding to.”

Her remarks appear to sarcastically criticize the South Korean military’s response to North Korea’s claims that the South sent a drone carrying anti-regime leaflets over Pyongyang earlier this month and that they found debris from a UAV of the same type operated by the South Korea’s military. In response to these claims, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, “We cannot verify (the claim), and the claim is not worth replying.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

One of the drones that flew over Pyongyang earlier this month carrying propaganda leaflets crashed and the North Koreans were able to extract information from it to determine it came from South Korea:

North Korea said Monday that its analysis of the flight log of a drone that crashed in Pyongyang earlier this month showed it took off from a South Korean border island in the Yellow Sea, insisting that the South Korean military is behind what it claimed were South Korea’s drone incursions.

South Korea’s military called the North’s latest claim “unilateral,” saying it is “unworthy” of verifying or responding to.

North Korea earlier claimed that South Korean drones carrying anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets were detected in the night skies over Pyongyang three times this month and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again.

Announcing the final results of its probe into the drone incursions, North Korea’s defense ministry said it has analyzed the flight control program from the remains of a drone that crashed after intruding into the North on Oct. 8, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The North said the drone took off from South Korea’s border island of Baengnyeong in the Yellow Sea at 11:25:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 and intruded into the territorial air of North Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Drones are now clearly the present and future of warfare:

An Air Force F-22 Raptor takes off during a demonstration at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia. Mysterious drones have been spotted flying around one of the U.S.’s most sensitive military areas, leaving defense

U.S. military personnel reported drones appearing in restricted airspace over Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, shortly after sunset during a period of more than two weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

The drones appeared in December last year, according to the report, pulling in officials across the Pentagon, FBI and the Defense Department’s specialized office for investigating unidentified aerial phenomena.

One senior official based at Langley told The Journal that multiple drones headed across Chesapeake Bay and further south toward the city of Norfolk. They reportedly traveled across Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval port and the main base for the Navy’s vaunted SEAL Team Six. Unless the drones are an imminent threat, by law they cannot by shot down near military bases.

Newsweek

You can read more at the link, but the drone provocations over Langley went on for 17 straight days and DOD could do nothing about it. These low cost drones if outfitted with munitions could have taken out all the over-priced F-22’s that were stationed at Langley.

It looks like the ROK government may have come up with their response to North Korea’s trash balloon attacks even though they deny it:

 North Korea said Sunday it has ordered its artillery corps near the border with South Korea to fully prepare to shoot after the North threatened a “horrible disaster” over the alleged flight of drones over its capital.

North Korea claimed the South had sent unmanned drones over Pyongyang three times this month. 

In a statement carried by its state media, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North’s leader Kim Jong-un, said the North was ready to take a “strong corresponding retaliatory action” in case drones carrying anti-Pyongyang materials are flown again into the North, warning that the “attack time” can come at any time.

In response, South Korea’s defense ministry said any attempts by the North to harm its people would result in the end of the Kim regime. 

On Friday, North Korea’s foreign ministry claimed that South Korean drones carrying leaflets were detected in the night skies over Pyongyang on Oct. 3, as well as Wednesday and Thursday of this week, and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again. South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun initially denied that the military had sent any drones across the border, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff later said it could not confirm whether the North’s claims were true.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if the activist group Fighters for a Free North Korea flew this drone with a wink and a nod from the ROK government?

Drones are now an extremely important part of modern warfare and the ROK military is planning to purchase some of the most combat proven systems:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects what the North claims to be suicide drones at the Drone Institute of the Academy of Defence Sciences, Aug. 24, in this photo released by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency two days later. Yonhap

The South Korean military is set to purchase Polish loitering munitions within this year, a move experts believe will significantly bolster the nation’s ability to counter North Korea’s purported suicide drones. The Polish drones, proven effective on the battlefield in Ukraine against Russian forces, could be a game changer in airborne warfare, analysts said.

According to military sources, Tuesday, the Ministry of National Defense recently submitted a request to acquire military drones to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), which is now preparing to announce the bid.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I would not be surprised if Kim Jong-un is developing and showcasing his suicide drones in hopes of selling them to Russia:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has overseen a performance test of various drones, calling for the development and production of more suicide drones to enhance war preparedness, state media reported Monday.

Kim supervised the test organized by the Drone Institute of the Academy of Defence Sciences on Saturday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

In the test, the drones flew along various preset courses and correctly identified and destroyed the designated targets, as they have missions to attack enemy targets on the ground and in the sea, the report said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

China is continuing to expand their surveillance capabiliites with this new drone:

Japanese fighter jets have scrambled to intercept a Chinese surveillance and strike drone seen operating for the first time north of Okinawa. A Wing Loong-10 was spotted Monday over the East China Sea by members of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, according to a statement that day from the country’s Ministry of Defense.

The drone was initially clocked heading east, as if it were traveling from mainland China, the statement said. After flying over waters west of Amami Oshima, the drone appeared to reverse course back toward its homeland. It did not violate Japanese airspace, the statement said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.