Korean Suicide Drones Crash into the Sea Immediately After Launch

ADD-Developed "Medium-Sized Suicide Drone"
Crashes into the Sea Shortly After Launch from Marado

The Navy and the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) attempted a combat experiment in which they launched suicide unmanned aerial vehicles from a naval vessel to strike moving maritime targets, but both drones crashed into the sea immediately after launch. The airframes were produced by Korean Air, the rocket boosters and launchers by LIG D&A, and the ground control equipment by Hanwha Systems.

At around 3:00 p.m. on August 25, a maritime operational verification combat experiment was scheduled to be conducted for the "medium-sized suicide drone," a core technology under development by ADD, on the flight deck of the Marado, a 14,000-ton large transport ship that had entered southern waters off Busan.

On the 25th, during a naval combat experiment for verifying the maritime operation of a self-destruct drone conducted in the southern sea area of Busan, a self-destruct drone (unmanned aerial vehicle) took off to strike a high-speed unmanned target boat. However, the drone that took off twice from the Marado ship crashed into the sea immediately, preventing the experiment from progressing. The Navy explained that it will continue to verify maritime operability. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

On that day, the drone crashed immediately after launch. After inspecting the cause of the first drone's crash, the experiment staff prepared a second launch using a backup unit. The second launch took place around 5:30 p.m., about an hour and a half later. The second drone remained airborne for three to four seconds longer than the first but failed to ascend properly and again crashed into the sea.

The drones were also equipped with anti-jamming technology to counter enemy electronic warfare, enhanced communications security features, and automatic target recognition (ATR) technology. In addition, they are capable of transmitting reconnaissance video acquired from long distances in real time using a low Earth orbit satellite data link.

The development of the suicide drone is one of the ADD's core technology research and development projects and began in 2024. While the targeted performance was not demonstrated in this experiment, it provided valuable data by identifying technical risks that can arise in the ship-based launch process under actual maritime conditions, which will aid subsequent development.

A Navy official stated, "It is regrettable that we were unable to conduct the planned combat experiment to verify the maritime operability of the suicide unmanned aerial vehicle," adding, "We will continue to verify maritime operability in connection with the ongoing development of the suicide drone system."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.