Warplanes: South Korea Brags In Self Defense

Archives

May 8, 2014: Recently the South Korea military publicized the fact that it had long had two locally developed and built UAV designs in service. This was in response to the discovery of Chinese made SKY-09P UAVs used by North Korea to spy on South Korea. These were 12 kg (26 pound) delta wing aircraft with a wingspan of 1.92 meters (6.25 feet).

The South Korean Remoeye-006 UAV has a 2.72 meter (9 foot) wingspan and weighs 6.5 kg (14.3 pounds) and is very hard to spot with radar and can carry a night vision camera. The light weight and large wings of the Remoeye-006 enable it to stay aloft for up to 90 minutes moving at up to 75 kilometers an hour. The other South Korean UAV is the RQ-101. This is similar to the U.S. Army Shadow 200, which South Korea also operates. RQ-101 is a 290 kg (639 pound) aircraft with a 45 kg (99 pound) payload, endurance of six hours and able to operate up to 200 kilometers from the operator. RQ-101 is mainly used to fly along the DMZ and observe what is going on inside (up to 20 kilometers) North Korea. 

Remoeye-006 and RQ-101 have both been in service for about a decade and each has undergone several upgrades in that time. South Korea does not like to publicize its locally developed military equipment much and issued the recent press releases on Remoeye-006 and RQ-101 to remind South Koreans that South Korea produces superior UAVs to what North Korea is using and has been doing so for a long time.