On September 26, the South Korean army held a military parade to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the army, displaying a large number of weapons and equipment, in addition to those conventional weapons often exported by South Korea, but also displayed a number of drones and unmanned aircraft weapons, the army, land, sea and air.
First of all, explain the anniversary of the founding of the South Korean army, South Koreans call it the Korean National Army Day, yes, but also the National Army, National Army Day dates back to August 15, 1948, the Americans will be the southern part of the peninsula of the Guard and Coast Guard integrated into the Korean National Army.
But National Army Day is set for Oct. 1 because that’s the day the U.S. and ROK troops crossed the 38th parallel and attacked to the north.
However, the parade is often held to avoid the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, so this year it was held on September 26th.
What was notable about the ROK’s current parade were the drone weapons used by the Army and Navy.
For example, the Army was accompanied by an unmanned vehicle in the Korean version of the Hummer.
This kind of unmanned vehicle for South Korea’s own development, called ARION-SMET, for 6×6 unmanned vehicles, but also participated in the U.S. Army unmanned vehicle bidding test, and do not know the U.S. Army will finally buy.
ARION-SMET is the English acronym, the full name is “cross-country intelligent navigation of the automatic robotic system – small multi-functional equipment transportation”.
And ARION is the name of a steed in ancient Greek mythology.
This naming system is very similar to that of the U.S. military, and it seems to be aimed at the U.S. military procurement.
The ARION-SMET is based on a 4×4 civilian unmanned vehicle, which is purportedly fitted with a remotely operated weapon station using deep neural network technology that can detect enemy targets and attack them, moving with the infantry company.
In addition to fire support, it can also transport weapons and ammunition, reconnaissance and transport the wounded.
Its maneuverability is a maximum speed of 43 kilometers per hour on the road and 34 kilometers per hour off-road, with a maximum travel of 100 metric centimeters and a maximum load of 550 kilograms.
The ROK’s unmanned combat ships were paraded on trailers, with a total of two types of surface unmanned combat boats and one unmanned submarine.
The surface ship on the left is the “Sea Sword-II” (해금-II) unmanned combat ship, first made public by South Korea in 2019, 12 meters long, 3.5 wide, fully loaded with 11 tons, 2 diesel engines, a maximum speed of 35 knots, 20 knots of the maximum range of 180 beavers.
There is a 12.7mm machine gun remote controlled weapon station, and 70mm multiple rocket launcher at the stern, mounted radar and other detection equipment.
Mainly used for patrols near military bases, there are also armed reconnaissance missions to the sea radar blind zone.
The right surface ship is “water ghost” (네이비 씨 고스트), public information is not much, from the South Korean Navy in the South Korean Navy base in Zhenhai on November 11, 2022 in the 77th anniversary of the founding of the South Korean army ceremony related information can be seen, this is a kind of unmanned boat can be mobilized, but also can be manned by manned ships.
From the parade picture speculation, it should be similar in size to the “Sea Sword – II”.
The name of the South Korean army’s unmanned submarine is very simple and crude, called ASWUUV, is the English acronym for anti-submarine underwater unmanned combat vehicle, in June 2022 had an operational test.
The ASWUUV is 6.5 meters long, has a maximum displacement of 9 tons, a maximum cruising speed of 10 knots, a maximum dive depth of 300 meters, an endurance of 30 days, and is equipped with passive and active sonar, acoustic sensors, a communications unit and a hydrogen fuel cell.
South Korea had unveiled the concept of these unmanned combat vessels in defense exhibitions, which is to be carried to the operational waters by a mothership and then formed into combat clusters to carry out combat missions.
On the drone front, a number of models were also on display.
The first is the KUS-FS/KUS-15, a medium altitude UAV that resembles the US RQ-4 Global Hawk.
It is said to be a UAV that South Korea started developing in 2011, and some people say that this UAV is called a MUAV, which is not true!
MUAV is the English acronym for Medium Altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
It has a wingspan of 25 meters, a length of 13.1 meters, a maximum flight time of about 24 hours and a maximum altitude of 11.9 kilometers, and is mainly used for reconnaissance, with the main reconnaissance equipment being a synthetic caliber radar with an antenna of 1.2 meters in diameter, and is currently assigned to the 39th Reconnaissance Wing, which will be established in 2020.
The South Korean side has already begun to add weapons to the KUS-FS test, installed a weapon mount on each side of the wing, has successfully conducted a conventional bomb drop test, the future may be added to the anti-tank missile launch capability. In other words, it may be developed into an investigation and combat UAV. The second one looks like a U.S. MQ-9 Predator drone.
According to public information, this drone is actually still under development, and during the military parade, this drone had obvious shaking in front of the camera, most likely a model.
This drone is tentatively named the next generation UAV (차기 군단급 무인기-II or UAV-II), and is designed to have a cruising radius of 600 kilometers, a maximum takeoff weight of 1,700 kilograms, a maximum flight time of 18 hours, and is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar with satellite communication capabilities.
One of the unmanned helicopters is a previously undisclosed model that differs greatly in size and shape from the already disclosed KUS-VH unmanned helicopter, so I wonder if it’s a downsized model or a real drone?
Behind the unmanned helicopter are some small drones, the aerodynamic shape resembles South Korea’s first self-developed drone, the RQ-101/Night Invader-300, but the size doesn’t match and the writing on it should be FT-3.
So this would be the FT-3 of South Korea’s KUS-FT series of drones, there isn’t much publicized detailed performance data, but the public performance of the FT-2 from this series is:
3.7 meters long, 4.5 meters wide, 0.9 meters high, maximum takeoff weight of 150 kg, the engine is 35 hp, maximum speed of 200 km / h, cruise speed of 130 km / h.
It is mainly used for reconnaissance of ROK Army divisional units.
Behind the FT-3 is the KUS-7 UAV, which is used for reconnaissance and artillery unit calibration. It has a length of 3.4 meters, a wingspan of 4.2 meters, a cruising speed of 150 km/h and a flight radius of 50 km.
There are also a number of stealth-designed drones in the drone parade.
In terms of appearance, it looks like the KUS-FC unmanned fighter aircraft previously displayed by South Korea, but according to South Korea’s own public information, the KUS-FC unmanned fighter aircraft has a wingspan of 10 meters alone, which clearly does not match this.
So it is possible that these are models of drone fighters?
At the end of the drone parade are Harpy drones, Israel has exported Harpy drones to South Korea before, I wonder if these are imported Harpies or South Korean copies?