South Korea to deploy long-range suicide drones, K-Lucas, amid evolving warfare

South Korea will push to bring in a long-range suicide drone system for combat use to bolster its unmanned weapons systems amid a changing warfare environment, Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said Friday.

The plan calls for accelerating efforts to field long-range self-destructive loitering munitions as part of the country's broader drone and counter-drone policy to adapt to changes on the modern battlefield where the use of drones is increasingly becoming a game changer.

"Low-cost drones are being deployed in large numbers, fundamentally changing the nature of warfare. North Korea also continues to advance its diverse unmanned aerial capabilities, posing increased threats to our military, critical infrastructure and civilian facilities," Ahn said during a press briefing.

"We will accelerate the fielding of the Korean style long-range loitering munition, the K-Lucas, which can be strategically utilized in modern warfare," he said.

A suicide drone is an unmanned aerial weapon designed to hover around targets before striking them and destroying both the target and itself on impact.

The Lucas system is reverse-engineered from Iranian Shahed-136 drones, a key weapon used in the U.S.-Iran war, capable of striking fixed targets at a long distance.

Since Russia's war against Ukraine and the U.S. attack on Iran, drones have emerged as a key military asset, with countries pivoting their military strategies to "affordable mass" to conduct high-volume strikes without exhausting expensive and limited conventional missiles.

To bolster drone and counter-drone capabilities, the military plans to acquire more than 20,000 low-cost drones, including short-range spy drones and small loitering munitions, before 2030.

It also plans to secure next-generation drone capabilities, such as artificial intelligence-powered drone swarms.

Under the updated drone policy, the Drone Operations Command will be reformed into the National Defense Drone Headquarters under the wing of the defense ministry.

The drone command has been under scrutiny over its role in the drone incursion into North Korea in October 2024, an operation believed to have been carried out to justify former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law attempt in December that year.

The new drone headquarters will largely be responsible for developing drone and counter-drone operational plans, including identifying procurement requirements, while the command's operational functions will be transferred to all relevant military branches.

Ahn also reaffirmed the plan to introduce train 500,000 "drone warriors," aiming to have all service members to be able to use drones.