North Korea presents two new drones that look like copies of the US ones
North Korea recently unveiled two new aircraft that military observers said were copies of the US-made MQ-9 Reaper and RQ-4 Global Hawk drones.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were included in a Pyongyang-led arms parade last week amid rising tensions with South Korea and the United States.
The first drones, carried by a convoy of trucks, looked nearly identical to General Atomics' Reaper drones, a powerful combat platform carrying up to eight AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.
Kim Jong Un appears with Russia's minister of defense Sergei Shoigu and Chinese politburo member Li Hongzhong during North Korea's 'Victory Day' celebrations on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/WwT9387AG6
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) July 28, 2023
While the similarities in reconnaissance performance and capabilities were still unclear, their visual similarity reportedly reflects North Korea's efforts to emulate the United States' growing drone program.
In a separate defense display before the parade, Pyongyang also showed off a Global Hawk lookalike with a North Korean flag on the engine.
According to state-run KCNA news, the new systems are a "strategic reconnaissance drone" and a "multipurpose attack drone" developed and manufactured to support the North Korean Air Force.
More armed than the original
Seoul-based military analyst Yang Uk told NK News that North Korean copies of the MQ-9 appear more heavily armed than the original platform. They reportedly have six weapon connections (three per wing) instead of just four on the US version.
While the system's design appears copied, Yang expressed doubts that Pyongyang could access US-made sensors and avionics to integrate into drones.
Another analyst, Xu Tianran of Open Nuclear Network, noted the protruding domes on the heads of the new North Korean drones.
NEW: North Korea airs the first video footage of its two new military drones in action, showing a combat UAV firing missiles during flight. Read more about the unveiling here: https://t.co/AoOvLYVg2l pic.twitter.com/07uYQGJv3g
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) July 27, 2023
In American drones these domes are used to connect the drone to the stars and stripes military satellite communication network. But North Korea does not have this type of tool, so it would be useless, unless PyongYang can access the satellite network of some ally, such as China or Russia.
Having a drone along the border, with the ability to permanently monitor it, would also give North Korea the ability to gather a great deal of intelligence about the south's military capabilities and also those of its allies, the US. At the same time, given the good relations between the two sides, we could soon see these drones on the Ukrainian front or on patrol on the Black Sea, just like their stars and stripes cousins
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The article North Korea presents two new drones that look like copies of the US ones comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-corea-del-nord-presenta-due-nuovi-droni-che-sembrano-copie-di-quelli-usa/ on Tue, 01 Aug 2023 14:18:24 +0000.