The South Korean military will more than double its supply of drones by 2026 to better respond to North Korea's drone threats.
According to the presidential office on Thursday, the plan was discussed during the fourth meeting of a presidential committee on defense innovation, where officials discussed ways to strengthen the military’s drone operational capacity and maximize existing fighting capabilities.
Under the plan, the government agreed to quickly secure a large number of drones by diversifying its procurement of domestic commercial drones, while speeding up the deployment plans for drones under research and development, and increasing related budget spending.
The top office in its press release said the plan will drastically strengthen the military's readiness posture against North Korea's drone threats.
It also outlined measures to maximize the use of existing weapons capabilities, while also increasing spending on enhancing the performance of weapons systems, from the current one percent of overall spending on improving defense capability to five percent.