From Do-yo-sae to Stealth Drones, 'K Drones' Rise

The first successful flight of a military unmanned reconnaissance drone in our country was the 'Songgolmae,' developed through technological improvements of the Doyosae.

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The world's first manned aircraft was the ‘NO.1’ developed by the Wright brothers in the United States in 1903. This aircraft flew for 12 seconds on December 17 of that year, causing a sensation worldwide. However, unmanned aircraft were developed 20 years earlier than the Wright brothers' plane.

The world's first unmanned aerial vehicle was created in 1883 by the British Douglas Archibald. At that time, Archibald's unmanned aircraft was equipped with a wind vane on a kite string to measure wind at an altitude of 360 meters or remotely drop bombs on enemy territory. Later, in 1898, American William Eddy flew a kite equipped with a camera during the battle with Spain to take photographs. This was the first reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle used in actual combat.

The fastest unmanned aerial vehicle is the ‘X-43A’ developed by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In November 2004, this UAV recorded Mach 10 (about 11,000 km/h), which is 10 times the speed of sound. This is three times faster than the speed of the fastest jet aircraft, the Blackbird reconnaissance plane (SR-71), which flies at 3,500 km/h. The ‘X-43A’ equipped with a scramjet engine is known to reach speeds up to Mach 15.

The largest unmanned aerial vehicle is the Global Hawk by the American company Northrop Grumman. It has a wingspan of 35.42 meters, a body length of 13.53 meters, and a maximum weight of 11,612 kg. Due to its large size, it requires a runway longer than 1,500 meters, but it has the advantage of flying up to 22,200 km at an altitude of 15 to 20 km at a speed of 635 km/h.

The smallest and lightest unmanned aerial vehicle is the ‘MP2028g’ developed by Canadian MicroPilot. It weighs 28 grams, is 10 cm long, and 1.5 cm high. Japan's Seiko Epson developed the ‘iFR-2,’ which weighs only 12.3 grams including the battery. It is only 13.6 cm in diameter and 8.3 cm in height. This UAV can transmit captured images to a ground monitor.

South Korea began its challenge to develop unmanned aircraft in 1987. At that time, Seoul National University, Korea Aerospace University, and KAIST started developing unmanned target drones for anti-aircraft shooting training. The unmanned target drones developed then are currently produced about 100 units annually and supplied to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and air defense units. Later, in 1991, Daewoo Heavy Industries (now Korea Aerospace Industries, KAI) began developing military unmanned reconnaissance aircraft in collaboration with the Agency for Defense Development. The first flight took place in 1993, but technical difficulties were encountered, making it hard to supply and deploy in the military.

In addition, Daewoo Heavy Industries started developing agricultural unmanned helicopters for pesticide spraying in 1992 and developed a prototype named ‘ARCH-50.’ However, this prototype was not mass-produced due to economic reasons. Dongin Industry also developed a small unmanned reconnaissance aircraft called ‘Magic Eye’ from 1993 and completed test flights but failed to commercialize it.

Ultimately, South Korea's first successful military unmanned reconnaissance aircraft ‘first flight’ was the ‘Songgolmae,’ born after technological improvements on the Toyosae. By completing the development of Songgolmae in 2000, South Korea joined the ranks of the world's top 10 countries operating domestically developed unmanned aircraft. Songgolmae is currently operated by the Army corps.

Korean Air began developing the division reconnaissance UAV (KUS-FT) in 2010 and delivered it to the military in 2020. The division reconnaissance UAV has 95% domestically produced parts, significantly reducing dependence on foreign parts suppliers. Additionally, development of a vertical takeoff and landing UAV (KUS-VS) is underway. The medium-altitude UAV has performance comparable to the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper, which was active in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and is receiving export inquiries from various countries, especially in the Middle East, where exports of U.S.-made weapons are restricted.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.