[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] Drone Command Headquarters Planned to Be Established in Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do

Pocheon City Council Conducts Public Opinion Survey for Residents
‘Anti-Drone’ Also Introduced at Key Government and Military Facilities

The Drone Operations Command is expected to settle in the Pocheon area of Gyeonggi Province. The Drone Operations Command will oversee attack and defense operations using drones and is scheduled to be established in September.

On the 13th, at the Mugun-ri training ground in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, a reconnaissance drone is performing missions such as enemy detection during the Amitiger demonstration brigade joint training. Photo by Jang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

On the 9th, Lee Seong-jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated at the Ministry of National Defense's regular briefing on the 6th, "Regarding the establishment of the Drone Operations Command, we are reviewing various candidate sites to enable strategic and operational mission execution, and it is being promoted in the Pocheon area."

This is the first time the Joint Chiefs of Staff has mentioned the location of the Drone Operations Command as the "Pocheon area." The Pocheon City Council is conducting a public opinion survey among Pocheon residents regarding the stationing of the Drone Operations Command. However, as news spread that the Drone Operations Command would be established in the Pocheon area, a controversy over pros and cons has erupted. Some city council members plan to hold solo protests until mid to late this month when the survey concludes.

President Yoon Seok-yeol ordered the early establishment of a joint drone unit following North Korea's unmanned aerial vehicle infiltration last December, and since then, the military has accelerated the establishment of the Drone Operations Command.

An "anti-drone" defense system to protect key government and military facilities from North Korean drone attacks will also be introduced. This is the first time a drone defense system for protecting major facilities is being implemented.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) will conduct a bid by the 8th of next month to purchase the "Integrated Anti-Drone System for Critical Areas" domestically. This bid, worth a total of 48.55 billion KRW, aims to defend against enemy drone attacks targeting key facilities of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, such as air force bases and naval ports, as well as government agencies.

Methods to capture drones are broadly divided into "Hard Kill," which directly destroys drones, and "Soft Kill," which focuses on neutralization. The integrated anti-drone system to be introduced this time uses the "Soft Kill" method. DAPA explained that it is a defense system that detects and identifies ultra-small drones and then disables them through radio wave jamming.

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