South Korea plans to develop military reconnaissance satellites and deploy five units by 2022 as part of efforts to beef up defense capabilities to better deter North Korea's evolving security threats, military officers said Monday, according to Yonhap news agency.
The plan is part of the defense ministry's policy goals for this year, which are focused on building a robust defense posture under the new paradigm of pursuing "a creative defense system" by maximizing advanced information technology.
"The state arms procurement agency will sign a contract with a private company for the project in October, and its development is to be led by Agency for Defense Development (ADD)," said a military officer, adding some 1 trillion won (US$928.2 million) will be earmarked for its development and production.
"The spy satellite, which is capable of securing imagery intelligence on the Korean Peninsula and the surrounding regions, is the key detection asset for the country's preemptive strike apparatus of the Kill Chain and the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) system," he said on condition of anonymity.
In a bid to ensure a stronger deterrence against the belligerent North, South Korea has been developing the KAMD, a low-tier air defense program, and the Kill Chain, which is designed to launch strikes right after signs are detected of imminent nuclear or missile provocations by Pyongyang.
The satellites, powerful enough to identify objects as small as cars, will be equipped either with high-resolution synthetic aperture radar or an electrooptic-infrared (EO-IR) surveillance device, another officer said.