[Reporter’s Notebook] Military’s Drone Countermeasures Again ‘Turning a Blind Eye’

Was the Military Response Properly Followed When North Korea's First Drone Was Discovered in 2014?

Yang Nak-gyu, military correspondent

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] “We plan to establish an operational system considering regional characteristics and build a strike system linked with detection equipment.” This was the response the Ministry of National Defense gave immediately after a North Korean drone was first discovered in the South in April 2014. Eight years later, has this promise been kept well?

On the 26th, one of North Korea’s drones started flying in the front-line area, passed between Gimpo and Ilsan, and entered the skies over Seoul. At that time, the infiltration altitude of the North Korean drone was known to be 1.5 to 2 km. The initial detection was made by the 1st Corps local air defense radar, but subsequent radars deployed in the metropolitan area failed to track the route. Only some sections were detected by the Small Drone Detection Radar (SSR) deployed in the Capital Corps. The rest of the route is the military’s estimation.

In 2014, the military also set a policy to strike North Korean drones with Vulcan guns, shotguns, and attack helicopters if detected. However, no actual training using these was conducted. As a result, one Cobra attack helicopter fired 20mm cannons (self-destruct incendiary rounds) near the southern area of Jumundo but failed to shoot down the drone. Six drone jamming devices were deployed in the metropolitan area, but their jamming range was only 2 km, making it difficult to bring down the North Korean drone flying over the metropolitan skies.

The military also planned that, considering operational limits in urban areas of the metropolitan region, they would first use GPS jamming to push small drones as far away from the city as possible, then strike them with Vulcan guns and attack helicopters. However, they did not fire a single shot at the drone flying over the metropolitan skies this time. They neither performed GPS jamming nor fired the Biho, 30mm wheeled anti-aircraft guns, or Vulcan guns.

Following this North Korean drone airspace violation, the military vowed to “actively operate detection assets to detect drones from the beginning and aggressively deploy strike assets.” However, there are no countermeasures planned until 2027. The drone strike systems planned by the military include the Portable Small Drone Countermeasure System, Laser Anti-Air Weapon (Block-1), Anti-Drone Integrated System, and Small Drone Countermeasure System.

However, these systems will only be operational after 2027. The military has expressed an internal intention to review additional drone strike assets such as a large drone strike system and sniper-type anti-drone guns, but it is unknown when they will be operational. This is why the plan the military has set this time is criticized as “covering one’s eyes while pretending to see.”

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