South Korea Budgets $440M to Develop Combat UAS

South Korea has allocated a budget of budget of $440M (500 billion Won) to develop unmanned combat aircraft."We're developing next-generation combat UAS and reconnaissance UAS simultaneously for Army units," a military source said on Monday. "About W500 billion has been earmarked for the projects."

But under Korea-U.S. missile guideline, the military is restricted to a UAS payload size at the level of American UAS from the 1990s.

South Korea operates three low-altitude surveillance UAS. Among them, the RQ-101 "Songgolmae" (Peregrine Falcon) is the only one developed locally by Korea Aerospace Industries. It went into service in 2004.

South Korea hopes to complete development of the combat UAS by 2017 and deploy them warfare-ready by 2021.

The new UAS will have a 150 HP engine, three times the engine capacity of the low-altitude Songgolmae (50 HP), but a little more than the medium-altitude MQ-1  (115 HP), which the U.S. completed in 1995. The overall performance of the UAS under development in Korea is believed to be similar to the MQ-1.

South Korea has the capacity to develop Reaper-class UAS with a 900 HP engine of the kind the U.S. deployed warfare-ready in the 2000s, but due to restrictions under the missile guidelines, Korea can focus only on developing medium and low-altitude UAS.

Photo: Low-Altitude Songgolmae

Source: The Chosunilbo