By Yi Whan-woo
The Air Force has created an aviation intelligence wing to better monitor North Korea’s key military facilities and cope with its growing nuclear and ballistic missile threats, it said Friday.
The unit will be in tasked with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance using the Highly Maneuverable Unmanned Arial Vehicles the Air Forces plans to acquire beginning next year.
It was also created as part of South Korea’s preparation for swift takeover of wartime operational control from the United States, according to the Air Force.
“The aviation intelligence wing is expected to enhance our reconnaissance activities around the clock in cooperation with the U.S.,” an official said.
The Air Force wants to buy two Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft in 2018 and 2019.
The Global Hawk has high-resolution synthetic aperture radar and long-range electro-optical/ infrared sensors. It can fly to an altitude of 18 kilometers, operate for 34 hours and survey as much as 100,000 square meters of land.