[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] Northwest Islands Unmanned Operations Enter 10th Year 'Ongoing'

The photo shows North Korean coastal artillery.

[Asia Economy Reporter Yang Nak-gyu] Although 10 years have passed since North Korea's Yeonpyeong Island shelling provocation, the South Korean military's UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) acquisition project for the northwestern islands is still facing setbacks. The military decided to re-verify the candidate models recently because there are no UAVs that meet the required performance such as endurance time and maximum operating altitude. As the candidate models are to be re-verified, the UAV acquisition timeline is inevitably delayed further.

According to the military on the 20th, the UAV acquisition project for the northwestern islands was decided in December 2010, immediately after the Yeonpyeong Island shelling provocation. At that time, the Marine Corps, which would operate the UAVs, suggested that fixed-wing UAVs are suitable for reconnaissance on flat terrain but are inappropriate due to a high risk of crashing near coastlines or mountain valleys. They also argued that vertical takeoff and landing types would be appropriate for amphibious operations.

However, the military chose a "balloon-type" tactical airship. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration signed a purchase contract for the tactical airship in July of the following year. The project was delayed from the start. The technical agreement between the U.S. company supplying the airframe and the Israeli company supplying the cameras and radar was delayed, missing the target operational date in the second half of 2012.

Although the equipment necessary for operating the tactical airship arrived, accidents continued. During the acceptance inspection in 2013, a defect occurred where information collected from the airframe was not smoothly transmitted to the ground, causing further delays in operational deployment. In December of the same year, while inflating one tactical airship, the outer surface of the airframe was damaged, and three days later, another tactical airship undergoing acceptance inspection suddenly lost internal air and crashed. Ultimately, the tactical airship project was canceled.

The military has claimed that reconnaissance and surveillance could be reinforced through the Israeli IAI Heron, a corps-level UAV possessed by the Army. However, the Heron crashed at sea in February 2018 and was not deployed for northwestern island missions until the end of last year. Additionally, two of the three UAV reconnaissance drones used for video acquisition on the Navy's intelligence ship Shinsegi were lost in crashes, further increasing the surveillance gap over the northwestern islands.

Only after 10 years since the Yeonpyeong Island shelling provocation did the military settle on introducing the vertical takeoff and landing UAVs requested by the Marine Corps. However, there is no model that meets the required performance, creating a difficult situation. Domestically, Korea Aerospace Industries' 500MD and NI-600VT are mentioned, but they fall far short of the military's performance requirements. The situation is similar abroad. Models from Austria's SCHIEBEL, France's Airbus, and the U.S.'s Northrop Grumman are considered, but price and other issues remain problematic.

A military official said, "As a result of investigating the natural runway on Baengnyeongdo, the terrain has changed due to the construction of Yonggipo Port in 2016, making takeoff and landing of fixed-wing aircraft practically impossible," adding, "We must select a suitable model and expedite the project to avoid any operational gaps."