<앵커>
The most eye-catching thing at the recent North Korean military parade was a large, high-tech drone. We looked at how far our drone development has come. We have almost finished developing advanced drones, but we have not yet been able to ‘deploy them into combat’.
Kim Tae-hoon, a defense reporter, exclusively covered what was going on.
<기자>
This is a video of a domestic used-altitude drone obtained exclusively by SBS.
It is known for its performance comparable to that of the U.S. state-of-the-art Reaper drone, which flies for dozens of hours at an altitude of more than 10 km and conducts reconnaissance and attack missions.
The Agency for Defense Development started developing it in 2012, but it has not yet been deployed for more than 10 years.
The development of the next corps-class drone modeled after the Gray Eagle, the latest unmanned reconnaissance attack aircraft in the United States, is in a similar situation.
The follow-up process was suspended when the Board of Audit and Inspection initiated an audit in May of last year, when the development of the two drones was almost finished.
After about a year of auditing, the Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out defects such as wind direction and landing instability when wind speed suddenly changed, and abnormal icing control due to altitude ascent, and decided to discipline five researchers.
The Agency for Defense Development immediately raised an objection, and a reexamination is currently underway.
A high-ranking military official told SBS, “The matter pointed out by the Board of Audit and Inspection is not about the performance of military operational requirements, and we cannot accept disciplinary demands because there is a solution.”
Since the development was funded by the national budget, drone audits have been conducted in this way several times before, and last year, eight key researchers in UAV development left the Defense Science Research Institute.
[송방원/우리방산연구회 회장 : 개발이란 시행착오와 실패를 반복해야만 성공하는 것인데, 감사원이 시행착오와 실패에서 감사 실적을 쌓으면 연구원들 사기 저하와 연구개발 중단, 전력 공백의 악순환이 나타납니다.]
In response to SBS’ inquiry, the Board of Audit and Inspection said that the development of unmanned aerial vehicles is a confidential business, so it could neither confirm the facts related to the audit nor express its position.
(Video editing: Jeong Seong-hoon)
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#단독 #Circumstances #warehouse #development #Korean #UAV
2023-07-30 12:02:00
