Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has inked a deal with a U.S. defense firm to develop high-tech unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for South Korean navy destroyers, the state-backed enterprise announced Thursday.
The agreement with Northrop Grumman comes weeks after multiple North Korean drones flew across South Korean airspace in late December, including downtown Seoul, and returned across the border before they could be intercepted. The ROK military is conducting an internal review of the incident and will present the results to parliament next week.
KAI and Northrup signed a memorandum of agreement to “cooperate with each other for ROK’s domestic development of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones that can be mounted and operated on naval destroyers,” according to KAI’s press release.
VTOL drones will aid the ROK navy and coast guard’s “surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition in vast seas and other operation areas,” it stated.
The press release added that Northrop Grumman vice president Richard Sullivan attended the signing ceremony in South Korea and vowed to help “drastically improve the ROK Navy’s maritime surveillance capability” going forward.
The U.S. defense firm developed and currently produces MQ-8 Fire Scout VTOL unmanned helicopters for the U.S. Navy, one of the primary customers for the company.
This deal is in line with recent developments in the South Korean arms development and acquisition industry, after President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered officials to improve defensive and offensive systems against potential DPRK drone infiltrations with “drone-killing-drone” systems and stealth UAVs.
Seoul also sent a UAV of its own across the inter-Korean border in retaliation for the DPRK drone incursion and vowed to accelerate recon activities and even suspend the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement should Pyongyang breach the border again.
KAI is a state-backed South Korean enterprise established in the 1990s, and its biggest shareholder is the Export-Import Bank of Korea.
The company developed and produces FA-50 light combat aircraft, KUH-1 choppers and RQ-101 drones used by the South Korean military. KAI also participates in the country’s development of multi-purpose satellites, defense satellites and space launch vehicles (SLVs).
Source : NK News
