'30-minute satellite gap, filled by drones': Korea urged to accelerate integrated surveillance system

During the US-Iran war, drones flying around the clock filled a 30-minute surveillance gap left by satellites, completing the kill chain — the sequence of detecting, identifying and striking targets. Experts are now calling on the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense to accelerate development of a "K-composite surveillance system" combining low-orbit satellite constellations with medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (MUAV).

The push is moving beyond the policy-recommendation stage. Korean Air rolled out the first production MUAV in April, with delivery to the Air Force scheduled for early next year, signaling that the concept of combined satellite-drone operations is entering the implementation phase.

According to the defense industry, a seminar on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) asset acquisition policy was held Thursday at the National Assembly members' office building. Democratic Party lawmakers Park Seon-won, Song Yeong-gil, Min Byeong-deok, Kim Yeong-ho and Kim Byeong-ju co-hosted the event, which the Ministry of National Defense sponsored.

At the seminar, Cho Sang-geun, a research associate professor at KAIST's National Future Strategy Technology Policy Research Institute, presented an analysis of lessons from the US-Iran war for South Korea's ISR system design. His presentation was titled "Direction for Building a K-Composite Surveillance System Based on Low-Orbit Satellite Constellations and MUAVs: Focused on Lessons from the US-Iran War."

The most closely watched asset in Operation Epic Fury — the US military campaign against Iran that began Feb. 28 and lasted six weeks — was the MQ-9 Reaper drone.

US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach told the House Armed Services Committee in May that "the most valuable asset in Epic Fury was none other than the unmanned asset, the MQ-9." The MQ-9 flew up to 12 orbits simultaneously and remained over Iranian airspace for more than 24 hours at a stretch. It played a central role in handling roughly 4,000 "dynamic targets" — targets that appear and disappear in an instant — out of more than 13,000 strike targets during the operation.

As of May, US forces had lost 42 aircraft and drones in the Iran war, 24 of them MQ-9 Reapers. Even so, the Air Force did not halt MQ-9 operations.

"The judgment was that a gap in the surveillance network was more fatal than losing a target," Cho said.

The role of satellite assets also expanded to an unprecedented degree. Within 96 hours of the operation's launch, the United States deployed space-based operations across the board — countering GPS jamming and electronic warfare, and expanding the collection of commercial satellite imagery.

Iran attempted to neutralize US reconnaissance by concealing missiles and drones deep underground in granite mountain terrain. Time-sensitive targets (TSTs) — assets that must be struck the moment they are detected — jumped sharply in number as a result.

On that basis, Cho said demand grew for airborne assets capable of 24-hour surveillance over specific areas, which intensified the US military's drone operational tempo.

The concern is that the same dynamic applies directly to the Korean Peninsula. Cho pointed to a range of North Korean threats: the tunneling of artillery along the demilitarized zone and coastline, the concealment and increasing sophistication of large-caliber multiple rocket launchers deployed between Pyongyang, Wonsan and the DMZ, the underground basing and air-defense integration of tactical ballistic and cruise missiles, and the threat of "wave-mixed" simultaneous launches of tactical-to-strategic-class drones.

"As North Korea fortifies its entire territory, our military's ability to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance of enemy firepower assets is constrained — forcing greater ammunition expenditure on our side and eroding operational sustainability," he said. He also warned that damage to the Greater Seoul area and US Forces Japan bases could jump sharply in the event of a conflict.

The core of Cho's proposed solution can be summed up as "wide-area observation, close-up surveillance" — satellites scan broadly while drones examine in detail.

Satellites can monitor large areas simultaneously, but as "pass-over" assets they leave a gap each time they complete a revisit cycle, with a target interval of under 30 minutes. Drones can shadow a specific target for more than 24 hours, but their coverage area is narrow and they are exposed to enemy air defenses.

Cho argued that "the strengths of satellites compensate for the weaknesses of drones, and the strengths of drones compensate for the weaknesses of satellites," and proposed a concrete operational procedure called "tipping and cueing" to put this complementarity into practice.

In the first step, a satellite conducting wide-area surveillance detects an anomaly, generates target coordinates, type and confidence level, and immediately relays the cue to a drone mission-control system via an optical inter-satellite link (OISL) — bypassing ground stations entirely.

An airborne or standby drone then takes over the mission, conducting wide-area confirmation with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) before switching to electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors for precision surveillance and continuous tracking. Any target the drone misses is handed back to a returning satellite for re-acquisition, creating a continuous loop.

Cho identified two essential requirements: integrating the intelligence processing cycles (TCPED) of satellites and drones into a unified "K-TCPED," and linking it with an AI-based target analysis system he called "K-TITAN" — modeled on the US Army's Targeting Intelligence to Analysts (TITAN) system, developed in partnership with Palantir (software) and Anduril (hardware).

On top of that, he proposed domestically developing an ultra-low-latency data link using lidar-based optical communications (OISL), and implementing a sensor-to-shooter architecture for a manned-unmanned teaming combat system — using the KF-21 fighter, Hyunmoo-5 missile and Aegis destroyers as "motherships," with MUAVs and the expendable strategic drone K-LUCAS serving as modular components.

Steps toward early MUAV fielding are already under way. In April, Korean Air held a rollout ceremony for the first production unit of the MUAV (KUS-FS) — South Korea's first strategic-class drone — at its Busan Tech Center.

Korean Air serves as the system integrator for the MUAV, incorporating subsystems including data links and detection sensors developed by LIG D&A and Hanwha Systems. The domestic content rate stands at approximately 90 percent.

Flight testing is currently under way. After operational unit integration tests scheduled for July, the drone is set to be delivered to the Air Force early next year and deployed on active surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

Once fielded, the drone will fill the last gap in the military's multi-layered ISR architecture, which spans high altitude (Global Hawk), medium altitude (MUAV) and tactical-class platforms.