North Korea Tests Swarm Attacks Mixing Drones, Missiles
WASHINGTON (WS Journal) -North Korea has started practicing swarm attacks that combine unmanned systems with conventional weapons, adopting tactics already used in Ukraine and the Middle East that could challenge U.S. and allied air defenses.
For the first time, North Korea carried out an exercise this month that combined attack drones, nuclear-capable missiles, rockets and long-range artillery to pulverize a target. The exercise was meant to hone integration across weapon systems with a “concentrated fire” able to decimate the “enemy’s armed forces organizationally and structurally,” the country’s state media reported.
North Korea followed that exercise on Sept. 20 by firing two missiles it described as hypersonic. State media on Thursday also reported tests of shells for an upgraded 240mm multiple-rocket-launcher system featuring unmanned precision guidance.
Such multidimensional attacks seek to overwhelm sophisticated air-defense systems by sending large numbers of weapons travelling at different speeds toward their targets.
Similar tactics have become increasingly prominent in Ukraine, where large numbers of relatively inexpensive drones and missiles can force defenders to expend costly and limited interceptor stocks.
Coordinating such attacks presents technical and logistical challenges for North Korea, whose conventional military still relies heavily on Soviet-era equipment. Pyongyang has made modernizing those forces a greater priority alongside its nuclear weapons program.
Closer military cooperation with Russia could support those efforts. North Korea has supplied missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine and sent laborers and engineers to Russian drone facilities, according to the report.
At a February congress setting out the military’s next five-year objectives, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to develop new AI-enabled unmanned attack systems.
The implications could be significant for South Korea’s air defenses in any conflict on the Korean Peninsula. Combining large numbers of drones with existing missile capabilities could consume interceptor stocks and create openings for subsequent attacks using more powerful weapons.
Military analysts cited by the Journal said future conflicts could increasingly hinge on whether attackers can manufacture missiles and drones faster than defenders can replenish interceptors.
Lami Kim, Korea chair at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said North Korea’s expanding drone capabilities, combined with its nuclear and missile arsenal, could alter the military balance on the Korean Peninsula.