South Korea’s procurement agency – Defence Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) – plans to invest 88 billion won (USD74 million) in counter-drone technology according to Channel News Asia and Reuters. A DAPA statement says the system known as Block-I aims to track and destroy small drones and other aircraft by locking invisible optical fibre razors on a target at close range. “We aim to improve the system so that it will ultimately be capable of intercepting a fighter jet and satellite,” said senior official Song Chang-joon. The announcement is thought to be prompted by incidents of drones from North Korea straying over the border. A North Korean drone was found in 2017 on the South Korean side of the Demilitarised Zone separating the two Koreas. About 550 photographs of the site of a US anti-missile defence system, taken with a built-in camera, were recovered from the drone. In 2014, a North Korean drone crashed while returning to the North after reconnaissance missions that included flying directly above the South’s presidential Blue House and taking pictures of it, according to the South Korean military.
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