04 April 2014

News Story: South Korea to purchase advanced surveillance radar to detect drone launched by North Korea


South Korea was reportedly considering purchasing advanced surveillance radar to spot small- sized, low-flying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) dispatched from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing a military official, reported that the military was mulling acquiring the low-altitude surveillance radar from overseas as it failed to detect several unmanned aircrafts deployed by the DPRK recently.

The DPRK has flew several pilotless airplanes for the reconnaissance purpose to South Korea, which were spotted by the naked eye in frontline areas, but were depicted as birds on the radar screen due to their small size.

The South Korean Army was operating the low-altitude surveillance radars called TPS-830K, but it rarely detected the small, unmanned aircrafts believed to be flown by the DPRK.

An official at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, the country's arms procurement agency, said over phone that he hasn't heard of whether the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) has decided to buy it, noting that the JCS should make a decision to purchase any military devices.

The South Korean military came to a tentative conclusion that two drones, discovered in inter-Korean border areas recently, came from the DPRK, according to government sources cited by Yonhap.

Read the full story at Army Recognition