In today’s modern society, countries around the world are maintaining a survival of the fittest form of system where the country would undergo any means and measures for the security and benefits of the country.
One of the strongest weapons among t...
In today’s modern society, countries around the world are maintaining a survival of the fittest form of system where the country would undergo any means and measures for the security and benefits of the country.
One of the strongest weapons among the measures taken for maintaining such system would be intelligence. Intelligence can affect a wide range of social hierarchy starting from a person to a industry and even the social economy as well as being used as a tactical measure of safeguarding national security.
In South Korea, where the country is standing face to face with North Korea with the DMZ in between, the collection and analysis of imagery intelligence is definitely a mission that must be accomplished for the protection of national security.
As of now, the collection of Imagery Intelligence on North Korea is being accomplished by a somewhat original aerial reconnaissance system that is composed of the civilian-military multipurpose satellite Arirang No. 5 and a reconnaissance aircraft.
The Arirang No.5 satellite is partially being utilized as military reconnaissance unit since its launch on August, 2013, and the imagery is being collected by a synthetic multi-angle radar where it collects a relatively high resolution imagery up to 1m every twice a day for 30 minutes.
Intelligence collected via reconnaissanace aircraft has begun since 1998 with the Peace-Krypton program (imagery) and since 2000, with the Baek-Doo (monitoring) program, and the Peace-Krypton reconnaissance aircraft utilizes a SAR Sensor that is unaffected by weather conditions, which allows a 24 hour mission deployment capability.
The imagery collected by the aircraft is sent to a ground station in realtime through a data link as soon as it is saved and the U.S. Military has recognized its reliability.
However, there is a limit on completely being aware an immediate threat beforehand in the Korean peninsula with our military’s multipurpose (civilian, military) satellite and Peace-Krypton aircraft stated above.
That is to say we are undergoing image collection and analysis under the collaboration with the U.S. Military since we don’t have possession of a military satellite as well as a high altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
Following this subject, without the U.S. Military’s reconnaissance assets (Mil. Satellite & Aircraft), Imagery Collection on North Korean territory cannot be guaranteed.
By analyzing our military’s limiting points during reconnaissance missions, the multipurpose satellite Mu-Gung-Hwa No.5’s is experiencing difficulties collecting imagery due to it being utilized for military purposes only twice a day 30 minutes while the Peace-Krypton Aircraft flies at a low, 10km altitude and must abort mission when detected by a North Korean radar system and is also exposed to enemy fighter jets.
Moreover, the aircraft has been experiencing disconnection of the data link due to Terrain Reclusion as well as malfunctioning of airborne image recording equipment due to turbulence created by weather or by taking off and landing.
This thesis contains analysis on the limited utilization of the Arirang No.5 (ANASIS) and the status and problems of the reconnaissance aircraft’s image receiving system as well as the direction of development of the four high altitute UAVs expected to be deployed on 2018 and the military satellite expected to be deployed between 2020 and 2021, which will be efficiently integrated with the independent image collection reconnaissance operation as a merged aerial receiving system.
The scope of research is limited to the satellite and reconnaissance aircraft surveillance system of the image intelligence collection aerial receiving system and the approach of the research method was to analyze both official and unofficial documents as well as resources while also referring to the expert’s opinions on the pertaining subject.
Hence the high altitude UAV and military satellite’s opportune introduction and mission deployment will be commenced under the National Defense Force Development Plan, and if the two systems, the Recon Aircraft and the Military Satellite, are successfully merged as a combined air reception system, the systems will be able to mutually supplement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, which will then allow our military’s image collecting power to increase to a point where we will be able to gain the capability to independently monitor North Korea’s threat level even after the transfer of OPCON from the U.S. Army.
Then follows the anticipation that the utilization of the aircraft and satellite system’s merger of image collection system will definitely become the core of deterring war in the Korean Peninsula and for acquiring superiority during wartimes.