There is a weapon that stands out the most recently in battlefields where various military technologies are applied in practice, such as the war between Ukraine and Russia, which marks the second anniversary of its outbreak on the 24th of this month, and the Middle East war, which is expanding beyond Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas. It is an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone).
Both Ukraine and Russia are actively using drones, which are inexpensive and capable of effective strikes, as they face difficulties in running out of weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged, “We will create a separate drone system unit,” and Russia is also targeting Ukrainian infrastructure with drones.
The war in the Middle East also began with a drone attack by Hamas. Pro-Iranian Yemeni Houthi rebels who support Hamas are also paralyzing the Red Sea route with drones. North Korea is also active in drone provocations, so South Korea is also focusing on building a drone defense system.
President Zelenskyy believes that drones are a way to ‘turn the tide’ two years before the start of the war. According to Reuters, in a video speech on the night of the 6th, he said, “I have just signed a decree creating a separate unit in our military called the Drone Systems Unit,” and emphasized the ‘speed war on drone warfare.’ President Zelenskyy also announced in December last year, “We will produce 1 million drones this year.”
Ukraine regards drones as ‘elite advance guard’ that can strike deep into the enemy’s heart. In fact, the Moscow Kremlin Palace, where Russian President Vladimir Putin stays, was exposed to a drone attack in May last year. In August of the same year, a Ukrainian drone attack paralyzed the Moscow airport.
Drones are also important in Russia. Drones were used to destroy Ukrainian dams, energy facilities, and tanks on several occasions. Ukrainian Internet media outlet Euromaidan Press reported in November last year, “Ukraine’s first-person view (FPV) drone production is 50,000 units per month, while Russia’s is 300,000 units.”
The reason drones are receiving more and more attention is because of their ‘cost-effectiveness’. As the war continues and weapons and financial resources are exhausted, it is decided that there is no weapon better than drones. A representative example is ‘FPV drone’. The British Economist reported on the 5th, “FPV drones are gaining a status close to a ‘myth’ at the forefront.” The drone unit ‘Achilles’ of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine recently took down Russian heavy weapons worth millions of dollars with several FPV drones costing $300 to $500 (about 400,000 to 660,000 won).
Drones are also perfect for psychological warfare. Unlike obvious artillery attacks, drones are ‘silent assassins’ that fly and attack without making a sound.
The recent war in the Middle East is also showing another ‘drone war’ aspect. A drone was also at the center of the Hamas airstrike on October 7 last year. The ‘Smart Fence’ Remote Control Weapon System (RCWS), which Israel spent an astronomical amount of money to develop to preemptively suppress Hamas provocations, was destroyed in vain by a small explosive dropped by a small drone.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have also recently been threatening American and British ships in the Red Sea route with drones. There is also an analysis that the Houthi rebels recognized the value of drones early on and prepared for them. According to the Yemen-based think tank ‘Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies’, the Houthis declared 2019 the ‘Year of the Drone’ and have been actively producing drones.
Drones cannot be dismissed as a story about someone else’s war. Our military authorities established the Drone Operations Command as a unit directly under the Ministry of National Defense in September last year to respond to drone provocations, such as the incident in which a North Korean drone invaded Seoul’s airspace in December 2022. Last month, Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik visited this unit and said, “Drones are a game changer on the battlefield,” and emphasized, “It is a weapon system that has proven its effectiveness in actual combat, such as the recent Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas armed conflict.”
The Ministry of National Defense announced plans to build a drone protection system that integrates detection, identification, and strike in response to North Korea’s drone provocations through the ‘2024-2028 Mid-Term Defense Plan’ announced in December last month. The strategy is to increase defense capabilities by deploying a small unmanned aerial vehicle response system that can detect and identify unmanned aerial vehicles and attack them using a soft kill method.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.