Calls grow for counter-drone systems to protect key public utilities

Hanwha Systems' low-altitude counter-drone defense system, now in development, aims to protect target facilities from possible drone attacks. Courtesy of Hanwha System

Public utilities, energy research sites, the military and city and provincial governments have all called for efforts to protect the nation's key energy-related facilities from potential threats posed by drones.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy hosted a seminar about advancing the existing counter-drone systems around such facilities, Friday. It came after the world witnessed that Russia and Ukraine have used drones to attack each other's territories, with targets including nuclear power plants, nuclear waste storage sites and other energy infrastructure.

Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kang Kyeong-sung said that key national infrastructure is increasingly becoming the target of drone attacks in state-against-state clashes. He called the examples from the Russia-Ukraine war as a new aspect of modern warfare.

"A new counter-drone system should be further developed jointly by the country's private, government and military sectors," Kang said during the seminar at Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) Art Center in Seoul. "The comprehensive system should be set up in different regions across the country where industrial complexes are concentrated."

Participants agreed that the system should cover the country's key large-scale industrial complexes scattered across the nation, including those in Changwon in South Gyeongsang Province, Yeosu in South Jeolla Province and Gumi in North Gyeongsang Province. The system should employ a multi-layered defense net that is coordinated by the military and various levels of government, according to the ministry.

They also shared the outcomes of some tests of a new system that is under development and discussed setting up guidelines for the new system.

About 100 people participated in the event including KEPCO CEO Kim Dong-cheol and representatives of nine other state-run utility firms such as Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, regional energy distributors, oil and gas corporations and KEPCO Nuclear Fuel.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, Ground Operations Command and 2nd Operations Command, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries dispatched their speakers to the venue as well as the Prime Minister's Secretariat and the governments of North Gyeongsang Province and the city of Gumi.