South Korea Considers Buying Israeli Aircraft Tracking System

Seoul, January 8 – RIA Novosti. The South Korean military is considering purchasing Israel’s Sky Spotter aerial surveillance system as part of an effort to strengthen its defensive capabilities against North Korean drones. Agency Yonhap refers to a military source.

According to the agency source, the South Korean military is considering purchasing the Sky Spotter system from Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to boost its defense capabilities after five North Korean drones infiltrated its airspace in late December.

The Sky Spotter system is designed for the early detection and tracking of balloons and kites used in terrorist attacks, especially unmanned aerial vehicles. The manufacturer’s website states that the system is able to monitor several objects at once, including those with a privacy function.

In the coming weeks, Seoul plans to review the system’s effectiveness in possibly countering North Korean drones, especially when compared to other radar and thermal surveillance devices, and decide whether to formally request the purchase of Sky Spotter.

It was previously reported that five North Korean drones invaded South Korea on 26 December. The South Korean military failed to shoot them, the drones returned to North Korea or disappeared from the radar. To the military, these were small-scale unmanned aerial vehicles.

It was later learned that one of the drones even briefly entered the P-73 no-fly zone with a radius of 3.7 kilometers around the South Korean President’s office in central Seoul and was theoretically able to fire there.