'24-Hour Surveillance of Buk'... Military Reviews Lease Plan for Ultra-Small Cluster Satellites

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] It has been reported that the military is considering renting nano-satellite constellations. Although our military plans to launch medium- and large-sized satellites this year and nano-satellites as well, this is to fill the gap before their operational deployment.

On the 12th, a military official said, "This is an issue under internal review by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), and I understand that this information was also reported to the Presidential Office last week."

Iceye-X2, a SAR microsatellite launched in December 2018. (Photo by Iceye)

Our military is promoting the '425 Project,' which involves investing 1.305 trillion won to introduce five medium- and large-sized reconnaissance satellites by 2024. Until now, the military has lacked its own reconnaissance satellites and has relied on overseas reconnaissance assets such as those from the United States for over 80% of satellite intelligence on North Korea. However, it is difficult to monitor North Korea 24 hours a day with only medium- and large-sized reconnaissance satellites, as the revisit cycle passing over the Korean Peninsula and returning is two hours. For this reason, nano reconnaissance satellites are also being developed with a target launch in November this year.

It will take a long time to fully operationalize all these satellites, so the military is considering ways to strengthen the Korean-style three-axis system 'Kill Chain' capability beforehand. Our overseas deployed forces have been renting commercial satellites such as Iridium and Thuraya. Although still in the planning stage within DAPA, the government authorities have recently contacted these companies to assess satellite development and image processing capabilities.

Military Negotiating Rental Terms with US and European Companies to Fill Operational Gaps

The nano-satellite companies currently under consideration by DAPA are the US-based 'Capella' and the European 'Iceye.' Iceye attracted market attention by providing information on Russian troop movements via satellites during the Ukraine war.

Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine's Minister of Defense, stated on social media, "We operated Iceye's nano-satellite for only two days but discovered about 60 Russian military vehicles," adding, "The ability to detect Russian military equipment camouflaged behind forests or obstacles was thanks to Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)."

Iceye succeeded in launching the world's first SAR satellite under 100 kg, Iceye-X1, in 2018 and currently owns a total of 21 satellites. It is the largest operator of nano SAR satellites worldwide. Iceye's satellites are also purchased and used by the United States, Canada, and Brazil. Iceye has stated that it will propose the sale of SAR radar imaging satellites to our military or suggest options to manage them on their behalf.

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