South Korea plans to train all 500,000 authorised military personnel across its army, navy, air force and marines as drone operators, the defence minister announced on Friday. Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said all soldiers should be able to use drones like a second personal firearm, as the technology becomes a 'game changer on the battlefield'.
The initiative, dubbed 'drone warriors', comes amid growing threats from North Korea, which has been developing its drone capabilities partly through its military partnership with Russia. Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have demonstrated that low-cost drones operated in large numbers are fundamentally changing warfare, Ahn said.
Seoul plans to procure about 11,000 commercial drones for training by the end of this year, rising to 60,000 by 2029, alongside more than 20,000 low-cost disposable combat drones by 2030. The military will also fast-track a domestically developed long-range loitering munition called K-Lucas, based on the American Lucas drone, which itself was reverse-engineered from Iran's Shahed-136 suicide drone used extensively by Russia in Ukraine.
The announcement follows a 2022 incident where five small North Korean drones breached South Korean airspace, with one entering the no-fly zone above the presidential office in Seoul. The military failed to down any of the drones despite scrambling jets and attack helicopters. North Korea's drone capabilities have grown considerably, and Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, gaining direct exposure to drone warfare.
On Friday, North Korea announced that leader Kim Jong-un had overseen tests of tactical ballistic missiles and an upgraded rocket artillery system with a range of 90km, as part of efforts to bolster firepower along its southern border. Kim has also pledged to expand North Korea's nuclear arsenal at an 'exponential rate', describing nuclear expansion as the most correct way to confront an increasingly unstable world.
