The South Korean military has vowed to thoroughly test and improve its drone tracking capabilities after the army failed to destroy North Korean drones that had infiltrated the country, the South Korean defense ministry said.
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Earlier it was reported that the South Korean army acknowledged its limited ability to track and destroy enemy small reconnaissance drones after failing to destroy five DPRK small drones that penetrated the territory of the country on Monday. The military explained that they missed the drones, among other things, because they could not attack in areas with civilians.
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South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol at a government meeting on Tuesday promised to strengthen the military’s surveillance and intelligence capabilities, accelerate the planned creation of a drone unit in the army, and introduce stealth drones.
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The military plans to conduct appropriate regular exercises and implement systems to destroy drones without harming civilians.
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“Our army will carefully check how each unit operates strike equipment and reconnaissance equipment to prepare for provocations by enemy drones, and will also aggressively introduce strike assets, while at the same time actively exploiting reconnaissance equipment so as to detect enemy drones at the very beginning,” said the head of the operations headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Kang Shin Chul, at a briefing by the South Korean Ministry of Defense.
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He also said the Army will provide “non-kinetic” strike capabilities such as lasers and radars, signal jamming systems, and stealth drones to bolster overall anti-drone operational capabilities. In addition, the military will insist on the speedy creation of an unmanned aerial vehicle unit to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance operations over key military targets of the enemy.
