U.S. drone Gray Eagle to be deployed in South Korea

The U.S. drone Gray Eagle is to be deployed on the Korean peninsula in the wake of North Korea's fourth nuclear test, according to South Korea press.

The unmanned aerial vehicle with a 56-foot wingspan can be fitted with air-to-surface missiles and is capable of striking targets during flight. A similar drone, the Predator, was deployed in Pakistan to hit al-Qaida targets.

South Korean television network MBC reported the drone can be controlled via satellite and if deployed on the peninsula can also be remotely controlled from the U.S. mainland.

The drones can be fitted with Hellfire anti-tank missiles and the Viper Strike, small precision-guided bombs, South Korea press reported. It can also fly at an altitude of 25,000 feet for 30 hours at a maximum speed of 170 mph.

If detected on North Korea radar, the aircraft can disappear by flying at lower elevation.

The Gray Eagle was tested last August at Kunsan, a U.S. Air Force base, where it exchanged visual information with Apache helicopters.

U.S. Forces Korea plans to deploy the Gray Eagle with the 2nd Infantry Division in north Gyeonggi province, near the Korean demilitarized zone. The South Korea-U.S. Combined Division stated Wednesday U.S. forces are operating the Raven RQ-11B and the Shadow RQ-7B at the brigade level, according to Yonhap. Any information collected by drones would be shared in real time between the two forces, the division stated.

South Korea, meanwhile, is going ahead with plans to deploy the Global Hawk, another surveillance aircraft, by 2018.

On the other side of the DMZ, North Korea has been developing a massive army of smaller drones that according to South Korean military experts could attack the South like "a swarm of bees," Seoul Economic Daily reported Wednesday.

Song Seung-jong and Kil Byung-ok of Chungnam National University said in a report published in an academic journal in December that North Korea is developing a "Tin Can Air Force" to compensate for the inherent weakness in its existing military power.

North Korea has a fleet of 300 drones, and its reconnaissance capabilities have been under development since the 1990s.