South Korea Plans to Install Anti-UAV System at Government, Military Facilities

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The South Korean government is planning to install an integrated system of protection from unmanned flying vehicles on governmental and military facilities in the country in order to combat North Korean drones, a South Korean official said on Thursday.

"In order to prepare against various North Korean unmanned assets and drones, DAPA is enhancing substantive response capabilities... We will make efforts so that the project for the integrated anti-drone system for key areas can be carried out in a timely way," Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) spokesperson Col. Choi Kyung-ho was quoted as saying by the local media.

Namely, a project totaling 48.5 billion won (about $37.2 million) has recently been published on the defense enhancement program procurement website, involving the purchase of an anti-UAV defense system which will be operated by the South Korean armed forces, the news outlet reported.

The report specified that bids for the system will be accepted until August 8 this year and the system is expected to be able to detect small drones and neutralize them by jamming their signals.

This June, media reported, citing a source, that the South Korean military had also adopted an aggressive counter-drone operational principle under which Seoul could send 10 or more of its drones to the North if a North Korean drone entered South Korea.

In December 2022, the South Korean Defense Ministry said that five drones believed to be North Korean had crossed the inter-Korean border. Four small drones flew in the area of Ganghwado Island in South Korea and another flew up to the northern region of the metropolitan area, including Seoul.