Drone crash mars weapon demonstration on Armed Forces Day
A target drone is engulfed in flames after being hit during a live demonstration of Korea’s Cheongwang laser air-defense weapon during an Armed Forces Day ceremony at Gyeryongdae in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong Province, Wednesday. Newsis
A target drone crashed during a live demonstration of Korea’s domestically developed laser air-defense weapon during the nation’s Armed Forces Day ceremony on Wednesday.
The incident occurred during a military ceremony held on the runway at Gyeryongdae, the military headquarters complex in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong Province. President Lee Jae Myung, Defense Minister Kang Shin-cheol and National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik were among the dignitaries attending the event.
Four fiber-optic drones were deployed as targets in the demonstration, which was intended to show the Cheongwang laser weapon’s ability to intercept airborne threats.
In the first sequence, one of two target drones lost balance and crashed during takeoff. The incident was captured in a close-up camera shot and broadcast live.
According to the military, the drone, which is controlled using a thin fiber-optic cable rather than radio signals, crashed after strong gusts damaged the cable. Cheongwang had been expected to engage the two targets sequentially, but intercepted only the remaining drone.
The second sequence, intended to show Cheongwang engaging two targets simultaneously, also did not proceed as planned.
Both drones took off successfully, but the laser weapon successfully intercepted only one of them. The other drone’s power was later manually cut, causing it to fall.
A defense ministry official said the drone had drifted outside the designated area because of upper-air weather conditions and was deliberately brought down for safety reasons.
The incident is the latest in a series of drone crashes at public military events in recent months.
At an advanced-drone technology demonstration organized by the defense ministry on Sept. 16, several privately developed drones, including a jet-powered unmanned aircraft, crashed. In August, two medium-sized loitering munitions launched from the Navy’s ROKS Marado during a combat experiment jointly carried out with the Agency for Defense Development also fell into the sea.