South Korea will begin deploying drone-melting laser weapons designed to shoot down North Korean UAVs this year, the country鈥檚 arms procurement agency said on Friday.
The new laser weapons 鈥� dubbed the 鈥楽tarWars Project鈥� by the South 鈥� are invisible and noise-free, require no additional ammunition, operate solely on electricity and cost only about 2,000 won ($1.45) per shot, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.
The 鈥楤lock-I鈥� system, developed by Hanwha Aerospace, will be 鈥榩ut into operational deployment in the military this year鈥�, Lee Sang-yoon, a DAPA official, said.
The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
In December 2022, Seoul said five North Korean drones crossed into the South, the first such incident in five years, prompting its military to fire warning shots and deploy fighter jets, but they failed to shoot any of them down.
The South鈥檚 鈥榓bility to respond to North Korea鈥檚 drone provocations will be significantly enhanced鈥� by the laser weapons system, DAPA said in a statement Thursday.
It has successfully achieved a 100 percent shoot-down rate in previous tests, and with future improvements, it could become a 鈥榞ame-changing鈥� weapons system capable of countering aircraft and ballistic missiles in the future, DAPA said.
