SEOUL– South Korea and the United States staged combined counter-drone drills at a U.S. air base in a southwestern city last week, U.S. military photos showed Sunday, as Seoul seeks to reinforce readiness following North Korea’s drone incursions late last year.
Posted on the Pentagon’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service on Friday, photos showed the drills taking place at Kunsan Air Base in Gunsan, 275 kilometers south of Seoul, on Tuesday.
One photo depicted a U.S. Air Force officer aiming a “dronebuster” at a small simulated enemy drone. The dronebuster is a radio frequency jammer that can neutralize enemy drones, according to the U.S. military.
Another photo showed a member of a South Korean Air Force explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) team checking the drone while wearing a “bomb suit” designed to protect personnel from possible explosives carried by the drone.
The North’s drone infiltrations in December have laid bare the South Korean military’s lack of readiness against such small crafts that could potentially carry lethal weapons.
The South has recently come up with a series of anti-drone plans, including conducting regular drills, building a real-time target intelligence-sharing system and securing kinetic and non-kinetic assets, such as drone jamming guns.
Source: Yonhap News Agency