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Military to deploy non-manned aircraft for precision strike in 2 years
A self-exploding high-speed non-manned aircraft will be deployed within two years, which will target coastal artillery shells, long-range self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery and air-cushion vehicles.
The state-funded Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) disclosed the current stage of developing “Devil Killer” striking short-range targets in precision in a seminar on the joint weapons system development spondored by the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the DND Club in Yongsan, Seoul, last Thursday.
The unmanned aircraft is equipped with a video camera, high-tech navigation system and high explosive bombs. It automatically find what it will strike during its flight in the sky above the target and crash to explode it.
The KAI launched development of the system in January last year as a model of a new-concept technology project proposed by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and succeeded in test flight in September of the same year. KAI, which has been improving its capabilities, is expected to complete the development by the end of 2003.
The aircraft, 1.5 meters long and 1.3 meters wide, can fly at the maximum speed of 350-400 kilometers an hour. It can easily move as it has foldable wings and is portable thanks to light 35 kilograms. It can strike Gaemeori coastal artillery positions 15 kilometers off South Korean teritory within four minutes when they are deployed on the Yeonpyeong Islet, according to the KAI.
It could also strike targets in the diameter of 40 kilometers in Baengyrong Islet and Daecheong Islet within 10 minutes. The aircraft can destroy air-cushion vehicles rushing at 80 kilometers an hour after tracing it in high speed, a KAI official said.
