The bidding process only ended last week on South Korea’s first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), but the country positioned on one of Asia’s geopolitical fault lines already has high expectations for what is sure to be a provocative weapon.
Korean Air will manufacture South Korea’s loyal wingman drone, a stealth UAV that observers believe will play an integral role in South Korea’s “decapitation strategy.” A plan to end or deter conflict with North Korea by killing its leadership.
As the Asia Times reports:
Critical aspects of the project include developing radar-absorbing materials and stealth shaping for future UAV designs.
South Korea’s new stealth UAV may operate alongside its homegrown KF-21 Boramae fighter. Asia Times has previously reported on this possibility, stating that the KF-21 may eventually partner with an indigenously-developed loyal wingman drone, which flies alongside manned aircraft to act as force multipliers and enhance the latter’s capabilities.
It’s expected to be able to operate individually, in coordination with fighter jets and with other UAVs in autonomous swarms.
As loyal wingman drones are expendable, they can operate in areas deemed too dangerous for manned aircraft due to dense anti-air defenses. They can also enable long-range standoff attacks, designating ground targets with their onboard sensors.
At the same time, the attacking aircraft launches missiles beyond the range of enemy air defenses while remaining electronically silent to avoid detection.
Using its advanced capabilities, loyal wingman drones could one day conceivably evade North Korea’s aging — yet eminently deadly — air defense system and decimate North Korean leadership, starting with Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.
Whether it will be able to do that in reality remains to be seen.
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I’m not surprised that the NK military is undertrained and using outdated equipment, but there’s one important caveat: never, ever underestimate a foe’s abilities.
Mass produce for NATO EU forces too
tallyho!
Hope they added some bunker busting hardware to this platform. I’d imagine the little prince and his wicked step sister have a pretty deep hole they’re going to dive into. Psychosis seems to run in the family. This news will probably rile them up. Threaten nuclear destruction of everything. Where’s Rodman when you need him?
What a nice fantasy: topple the Kim regime and free the NK people. But CCP will never allow that. NoKo is a fully-owned subsidiary of the CCP/PRC.