North Korea unveiled two new unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that closely resemble known U.S. drone models on Thursday, signaling via state media that the country is well on its way to achieving both combat and reconnaissance drone capabilities.
It is unclear when Pyongyang began developing the new drones, but their reveal comes around two and a half years after the Jan. 2021 party congress, where DPRK leader Kim Jong Un ordered the military to produce “unmanned striking equipment” and “reconnaissance drones” with a range of 310 miles (500 km).
Both appear in photos of the “Weapons and Equipment Exhibition 2023” held in Pyongyang on Wednesday, and both appear to be models that NK Pro first identified on runways at an airbase in the northwest of the country last month, a sign of flight testing.
Framed photos displayed in front of the models on the expo floor depict flight testing — including above Pyongyang — and show that Kim inspected them in secret. The words “DPRK Air Force (조선인민군공군)” and serial numbers are printed on each of their sides.
One model, which had a wingspan of 65 feet (20 meters) when it appeared in satellite images, appeared at the expo to be equipped with two different types of missiles attached below its wings and with an overall design similar to a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper combat UAV.
“MQ-9s are capable of both recon and attack at the same time,” Yang Uk, a military analyst at the Seoul-based Asan Institute, told NK News on Thursday.
“If you look at North Korea’s MQ-9 copies, they have three weapon stations per wing, so six in total, and you can see that they loaded missiles similar to US Hellfire missiles,” Yang said. “The U.S. version of the MQ-9, by comparison, has two weapon stations per wing or four in total.”
He said North Korea’s version may “appear more armed than the original U.S. MQ-9s,” though he cautioned that Pyongyang has yet to demonstrate their true capabilities and specifications and is unlikely to have access to “U.S. technology-level sensors and avionic electric equipment.”
Xu Tianran, an analyst with Open Nuclear Network, told NK News that the bulging domes at the heads of each drone may house satellite dishes, though he questioned their purpose since Pyongyang has “no communication satellites of their own.”
He added that it “can’t be ruled out” that they serve a different function, but that “by appearance they look like satellite dishes” and that “with current geopolitical realities, it’s not completely unimaginable if [another country] rented them satellite bandwidth.”
The other model closely resembles a U.S. Air Force RQ-4A Global Hawk. It appeared during testing at Panghyon Airbase last month to have a wingspan of around 115 feet (35 meters) and elements matching the model at the weapons expo, such as a V-tail and upper air intake.
The larger model “looks like it’s a high-altitude, medium-to-long endurance type,” Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told NK News.
“The design does resemble several known drone designs, but that’s not necessarily evidence that the North Koreans are relying on stolen information or knowledge,” Panda said. “We do know that they’ve breached several defense-related firms around the world in recent years and some of those efforts could be related to high-altitude UAV design.”
He added the drones could appear at a military parade likely to take place Thursday and that he expects to see a dedicated report on flight testing and a demonstration of capabilities more clearly in state media soon.
Daniel Pinkston, a lecturer in international relations at Troy University, said the new UAVs could help North Korea strengthen its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, which he called the “weak link” in the weapons systems it has developed in recent years.
“Being able to place those UAVs in a loitering position, or track near the southern part of North Korea near the DMZ, then it would give them the opportunity to collect a lot of intelligence data from the South,” he said.
The Rodong Sinmun released several photos on Thursday partially showing the two drone models at the weapons expo but did not report any details about the weapons systems, such as their names or development history.
State TV aired a brief clip of both drones during flight testing, including the Reaper-type drone firing missiles.
The exhibition appeared to take place inside Heavy Industry Hall at Pyongyang’s Three Revolutions Exhibition House complex — the same venue as another weapons exhibition in Oct. 2021.
NK Pro detected an increase in activity at the complex possibly related to preparing for the latest expo starting in late May, though most of the work appeared related to renovating a different building.
No large drones were on the main floor at the 2021 exhibition, but smaller models appeared partially in the background of some video footage of the event. It is not yet clear if this week’s event also features such smaller models.
Source: NK News