South Korea’s Ministry of Defense announced Friday it will expand its drone capabilities and countermeasures to face North Korea. The military plans to produce 110,000 drones by 2029 for deployment across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.
The ministry said it will prepare 500,000 long-range suicide drones for combat use. Tens of thousands of unmanned systems will be deployed to frontline units.
Defense Minister Ahn Kyu-back stated drones must become a general combat tool for every soldier rather than equipment for limited units. Seoul will use 100% domestic components for the systems. The minister cited security concerns for the decision to avoid Chinese components.
The minister said low-cost drones are changing the nature of warfare. He stated North Korea is developing unmanned systems that increase threats to military and civilian facilities in the South.
South Korea’s suicide drones will be a version of the U.S. Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS). The LUCAS system was reverse-engineered from Iranian Shahed-136 drones.
