First female military drone pilot
Sergeant First Class Yoon poses with her drone after receiving her drone pilot license, becoming the first female soldier to do so. Courtesy of Republic of Korea Army
By Kim Hyun-bin
The Republic of Korea Army has trained its first female military drone pilot, Sergeant First Class Yoon Hee-young.
Yoon is a member of the 36th Infantry Division, and recently completed training and passed the examination to officially become the first female soldier to receive a drone pilot license in the armed forces
“Gender is irrelevant. I am proud that I have received a drone pilot license, it's one of the things I dreamt of. Now, I want to utilize my skills for the military,” said SFC Yoon Hee-young.
The army's concentrated efforts to promote the fairly new drone program caught many soldiers attention including Yoon's.
“The army has been working to integrate drones into the combat arena after it decided that drone surveillance would be needed for the Winter Olympics, which was an attention grabber for many soldiers. It created a drone boom in the military, there were even drone love gatherings and drone clubs,” said Yoon.
Upon receiving her license, she took part in several drone surveillance missions during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Last May, the Army Intelligence School established a drone training center. Members that complete their three week training are qualified to take the government's drone pilot exam.
Participants need to pass both the written and performance test to receive the license. Since last May, 70 soldiers have gone through the program.
In recent years, the military has been looking into alternative warfare including combat drones and robots as Korea's population has been on a rapid decline, due to a low birthrate.
Yoon believes it won't be long before Korea will be capable of using drones and robots that could replace foot soldiers in combat.
“I would like to research more ways drones can be used in military operations and would like to try out to become a combat drone pilot when the opportunity presents itself.”