Seoul taps Korean Air to build stealth drones that could neutralise Pyongyang's air defence

Fresh from the successful development of its home-grown KF-21 fighter jet, South Korea has set its sights on developing "stealth" unmanned military drones that could contribute to neutralising North Korea's dense anti-aircraft defence system.

The Korean Agency for Defence Development (ADD) selected Korean Air earlier this month as the preferred bidder over Korea Aerospace Industries, developer of the indigenous KF-21, for its "stealth unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) squadron development project", Korean Air said last week.

"ADD began developing the UAV squadron in November last year and has completed the basic design. The agency plans to work on the detailed design with Korean Air," the company said.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Korean Air will develop a "manned-unmanned teaming system" in which one manned aircraft is backed by three to four stealth UAVs in jointly carrying out various missions including air combat, air-to-ground attacks and surveillance.

"The squadron of UAVs will not only support and escort a manned aircraft, but will also be able to perform its own missions including surveillance, electronic interference tactics and precise strikes," it said.

The announcement comes as the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine makes it clear that drones are becoming an integral part of war machines, with thousands of military UAVs used in the conflict by both sides to hit targets or to direct artillery fire onto them.

"UAVs will obviously serve as a decisive factor in every war and all countries including the superpowers - the United States, China and Russia - are all out to develop such man-unmanned teaming systems," said Shin Jong-woo, a defence analyst at the Korea Defence Forum.

South Korea has been developing UAVs including unmanned attack helicopters and surveillance planes in the past decade or so.

"But it's another matter to develop highly-sophisticated manned-unmanned teaming systems that will employ top-of-the- line artificial intelligence and extremely complicated software that will take a lot of time and effort," he told This Week in Asia. "It's anyone's guess when South Korea can develop such a system."

Another defence analyst, Lee Il-woo at the Korea Defence Network, said the concept of "loyal wingman" aircraft - unmanned vehicles accompanying manned aircraft into combat missions - had gained traction globally.

This includes the US Air Force's Skyborg programme that envisages expendable unmanned aircraft assisting manned fighters.

Unmanned aircraft such as the Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie and Boeing Australia MQ-28 Ghost Bat had been developed in accordance with this concept, Lee said.

"The massive use of UAVs has a clear appeal to South Korea as well, because it has no reliable means of its own to electronically neutralise North Korea's dense anti-aircraft defence system," Lee said, adding South Korea currently relied on US assets for this purpose.

The merits of drones included negligible maintenance costs and the exemption of years of pilot training necessary for manned aircraft, he said.

"They can carry out combat missions in the front while manned vehicles can stay back safely from hostile firing. This could drastically increase the air force's operational range," Lee said.

"But I think it will take at least 10 years for South Korea to combine its KF-21 (manned fighters) with workable UAVs for a manned-unmanned teaming system".

The US could integrate its stealth F-35s with UAVs in a few years' time, he said.

South Korea currently has 40 F-35A fighter jets and will buy 20 more from the US as part of its F-X project focused on acquiring foreign stealth fighter jets from 2023 to 2028.

However, both Lee and Shin raised questions over suggestions that stealth UAVs could be used to "decapitate" North Korea's leadership.

South Korea's conservative government has made no secret that it would consider pre-emptive strikes against the North's missiles and possibly its senior leadership if an imminent attack is detected.

"UAVs are too small to carry bunker busting bombs while one F-35 can carry two 900kg bombs to destroy concrete bunkers," Lee said, adding stealth fighters did not need to be accompanied by slow drones for striking targets behind enemy lines.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.