1OCT

DAPA approves VTOL drone for Korean army

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15:21UTC

South Korea approved a 2.16 trillion won, ten-year research programme for a vertical take-off drone to replace the army's RQ-102K.

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Key takeaway

South Korea will spend a decade developing its next army reconnaissance drone rather than buying one off the shelf.

On 15 September the committee chaired by South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the country's arms procurement agency, approved a 2.16 trillion won research programme for a vertical take-off reconnaissance drone⁠¹. The programme runs from 2027 to 2036, and the drone will replace the army's fixed-wing RQ-102K. A vertical take-off drone needs no runway or launch rail, so a unit can fly it from a clearing or the back of a vehicle.

By Lowdown's calculation the budget averages about 216 billion won a year for a single reconnaissance type. A research programme running to 2036 makes the RQ-102K's successor a project for the next decade rather than an urgent purchase, and Asian Military Review's account gives no in-service date.

Five weeks earlier DAPA wrote drone jammers into its K2 tank upgrade. Both decisions put South Korea's drone money inside long programmes with fixed end dates, the reverse of the urgent direct awards made in Europe in September.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

South Korea's army uses small drones to watch the battlefield. Its current model, the RQ-102K, works like a small plane and needs a runway or launcher to take off. The government has approved money to develop a new drone that rises vertically from the ground, so soldiers can launch it almost anywhere. Korean companies will design and build it over ten years, from 2027 to 2036. The defence buying agency says it will see much more of the battlefield than the old one.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

A fixed-wing tactical drone needs a runway, a launcher or a prepared strip, and those sites are easy to find and hit. Front-line experience has pushed armies towards aircraft that can launch from a clearing or a vehicle, which is the requirement DAPA has now written.

Korea's defence-industrial policy favours domestic development where time allows. A ten-year programme gives Korean firms steady work and keeps the design and its data under national control.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Korean aerospace firms gain a decade of funded drone development work.
Risk
The army keeps flying a runway-dependent drone until the new type arrives, with no in-service date published.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: The RQ-102K itself, a 125.6kg fixed-wing drone built by Korean Air, came from Korea's own aerospace base. The replacement keeps the work inside the same domestic industry rather than opening it to foreign makers.

Counter-parallel: Ukraine approved hundreds of new drone designs in nine months this year through a fast codification process. Seoul's ten-year research timetable sits at the opposite end, trading speed for a domestic product built to a single army specification.

At about US$1.51bn, the programme spreads its money over a decade of research rather than a production run, so most of the spending goes to design, testing and engineering staff.

The MH-60R approval at the same meeting was larger, at 3.24 trillion won, and flows mainly to the United States. On 15 September DAPA's committee sent the helicopter money abroad and kept the drone money in Korea.

Consensus view: The committee chaired by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said the drone would 'overcome the limitations of the existing fixed-wing-type divisional reconnaissance drone', according to Asian Military Review. A vertical take-off design frees army divisions from the prepared strips the RQ-102K needs.

Counter-view: The same meeting approved 3.24 trillion won for more MH-60R helicopters through US Foreign Military Sales, bought off the shelf. Seoul imports when it needs a capability soon and develops at home when it can wait, and the reconnaissance drone fell into the second group.

Key tension: Whether a design set around today's requirements will still match the drone threat when it reaches divisions in the 2030s.

Sources:Asian Military Review

Mentions:K2 →South Korea →Ukraine →Seoul →South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration →RQ-102K →Republic of Korea Army →Asian Military Review →Korean Air →US Foreign Military Sales →Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk →

First Reported In

Update #18 · Four EU states skip tenders on drone defence

Asian Military Review· 1 Oct 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Seoul buys jammers with its new tanks

DAPA followed its K2 jammer approval with a VTOL reconnaissance drone programme.

Occurred 11 Aug 2026

Read story →

This Event

DAPA approves VTOL drone for Korean army

Seoul is developing its next army reconnaissance drone at home over a decade, while other buyers in this briefing order kit already flying.

Different Perspectives

Israel Defense Forces (Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir)

The IDF finalised a new Unmanned Systems and Artificial Intelligence Branch on 10 September, with full inauguration expected by early December. Israel is reorganising its forces around drones while Israeli suppliers pass into foreign hands: US-listed Ondas bought the fuze maker GATE on 14 September.

EHang (chairman and chief executive Huazhi Hu)

EHang withdrew its 600 million yuan revenue guidance on 25 August, blaming a more cautious Chinese regulator after industry air incidents. China's leading pilotless-aircraft maker now seeks first approvals in Sri Lanka and Thailand while US tariffs and FCC rules shut Chinese parts out of allied supply chains.

DroneShield

The Australian firm won one of ten Domestic Shield ceilings, $500m, on 29 September, while its FY2027-and-beyond committed revenue stood at A$46m. Its own filing warns investors that the US award may never turn into orders.

Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of War

In a speech at Quantico on 30 September Hegseth announced AUTOWARCOM, a four-star drone command targeted for 1 October 2027 if Congress agrees, and called Drone Dominance and JIATF-401 a good start. He wants one command with its own budget to buy at the scale those two efforts have not reached.

Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA)

A DAPA-chaired committee approved a 2.16 trillion won domestic programme on 15 September for an army vertical take-off reconnaissance drone, running from 2027 to 2036. Seoul is choosing slow domestic development over urgent imports for its divisional surveillance.

Taiwan's Executive Yuan (Cabinet)

After the Legislative Yuan voted 60 to 50 on 27 August for a baseline of NT$40bn a year, in principle, for domestic drones and rejected its special budget, the Cabinet said on 30 August it would expedite funding and indicated it would co-sign the act. Taipei gets a statutory domestic market but loses a ring-fenced multi-year fund.