Seoul Halts Unmanned Border Guard Project
By JUNG SUNG-KI,
seoul Published: 8 May 14:03 EDT (18:03 GMT)
SEOUL - South Korea's military has halted a multimillion-dollar project to establish an unmanned electronic border-security system after the equipment was found "unfit for combat," the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said on May 7.
Seoul initiated the program in June 2006 as part of efforts to develop its manpower-based military into a smaller but stronger one equipped with high-tech weapon systems.
It also aimed to bolster the defense of border areas, after a border intrusion by a North Korean soldier through the barbed wire fence in 2005. In 2004, a South Korean civilian defected to the North after cutting three layers of wire fences near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the world's most heavily fortified border, dividing the two Koreas, which remain technically at war.
Under the border guard project, the military spent about $4 million on the installation of a package of smart sensor and detection systems at guard observation posts of a front-line Army division near the 253-kilometer DMZ, for a yearlong test run, said Maj. Cho Ok-hyeon of DAPA's public affairs office.
The military wanted to make the system fully operational with all front-line units in stages by 2011.
Samsung S1, a security-related equipment manufacturer, was selected as prime contractor for the deployment of the systems, which include fiber-optic sensors connected to barbed wire fences, remotely monitored battlefield sensor systems and up-to-date closed-circuit televisions, Cho said.
The guard observation post system "is in a tentative suspension, as we concluded it failed to meet our operational requirements following a yearlong pilot run, which ended last October," he said. "So we're reviewing how to go ahead with the project and studying ways to fix the system's problems at the same time. But that does not mean we are going to drop the project."
The DAPA declined to reveal the results of the tryout.
According to Yonhap news agency, the system was found incapable of satisfying six of the military's 65 operational demands, while 76 other parts need improvement.
In particular, the fixed-style around-the-clock sentry showed failure at night, it said, citing a DAPA document on the test run of the surveillance system.
"The system's operational failure at night means it could not replace guard and observation missions conducted by troops," an official of the Ministry of National Defense said, asking not to be named.
The military hoped the unmanned security system would relieve border patrol missions by troops in accordance with its troop reduction plan. Under the Defense Reform 2020 initiative unveiled in 2005, the current 680,000 troops will be downsized to 500,000 by 2020 in stages.
A DAPA official in charge of the project said on the condition of anonymity that the agency might seek help from manufacturers of border guard products in foreign nations to jump-start the stalled project.
"We'll take a comprehensive and detailed re-examination of this project," the official said. "There is no plan to get foreign firms involved in the project yet, but learning technology from others would be a good option," he said, citing border guard systems in the United States, Israel and Mexico.
Help
