Our neighbor to the east Korea is an interesting country, since the 60s, Korea has been government-oriented, and strive to develop its own industry, after decades of struggle, the original poor and white Korea has really developed into the world's number one industrial country, especially in the field of military industry, Korea's K2 tank, K9 self-propelled howitzer, FA-50 combat trainer aircraft and other weapons can even be sold to many countries, it seems that Korea has become a major arms export country, However, a recent scandal exposed by the Korea military can be regarded as a return to the original form of "Made in Korea".
(One of the signatures of the Korea military industry: K9 self-propelled howitzer)
According to Korea's KBS TV report, a drone recently purchased by the Korea military to perform coastline monitoring tasks is highly similar to a drone produced in China in terms of appearance and size data, which KBS suspects is that Korea's "manufacturer" has copied the design of the Chinese drone, so it is questioned. In response to the media's doubts, the Korea government simply established a professional team and launched an investigation, but it didn't matter if it was investigated, it was found that where was the plagiarism, it was the so-called "producer" of Korea who directly purchased a batch of drones from a factory in Shenzhen, China, and changed them to the label of "Made in Korea" after being shipped to Korea, which was regarded as "independent research and development" and delivered to the Korea army. In a word: the Koreans really did not copy this time, they directly bought Chinese drones back and pretended to be homemade, and then used them by their own army.
(Korea's KBS TV questioned the Korea military's new drone copying Chinese design)
There are at least two problems exposed here:
First of all, Korea's image of "industrial power" is actually fictional, although Korea is also a manufacturing country exporting abroad, but in fact Korea itself does not have any core technology in the real sense, whether it is K2 tanks or K9 howitzers, they are directly "taken" ready-made products from other countries, and then Korea assembles, and then sticks a "Made in Korea" label and sells them externally. This also explains why Korea's weapons and equipment will be welcomed in Europe, because European customers are not interested in the so-called "Made in Korea" at all, but the European and American suppliers behind these Korea weapons - after all, the so-called "Made in Korea" uses European and American components, which is equivalent to buying European and American products, and the price is cheaper, so why not?
(This time the Koreans really did not copy, but directly bought a Chinese drone back to pretend to be "self-developed")
Secondly, the level of technical requirements of the Korean army is quite inferior, so much so that civilian drones can also meet the military standards of the Korean army. In fact, the reason is also very simple, that is, although these UAVs are purchased from China by Korea "middlemen", and then remodeled and delivered to the Korea army for use, but if these UAVs are not strong enough to pass the actual test of the Korea army, it is naturally impossible to be received, since they have been received, it means that these weapons meet the requirements of the Korea army, and civilian equipment cannot meet military requirements, this is the performance of civilian equipment is too good, or the standard of military equipment is too low, then it is a matter of opinion.
(This is very embarrassing for the Korean army)
However, there is another place where this matter really broke the defense of the Koreans: according to KBS reports, the Korea Army spent a total of 43 billion won, about 30 million US dollars, to purchase 100 UAVs of this model, that is, almost 300,000 US dollars a one, and this kind of UAV is only about 20,000 US dollars on the Shenzhen company's online public price, and there is almost a 15-fold price difference in the middle, which can only be said that Korea's "middlemen" are really ruthless!
(The 100 drones purchased today are completely unusable)
Now for the Korea army, the most embarrassing thing is that these 100 drones will definitely not be used, because everyone knows very well that the Internet has a characteristic of China's drones, that is, once close to the Chinese border, whether land border or sea border, it will automatically turn around and will not fly in the direction of China, which has been actually verified by the India army. Therefore, if there is friction between China and South Korea in the future, it will be embarrassing for the drones commanded by the Korea military to "go home" before they arrive at the friction site! And at present, United States is gradually "decoupling" from China, and naturally it is impossible to allow its younger brother Korea military to openly use Chinese drones.
In fact, from this scandal, it can also be seen that Korea's so-called manufacturing power is completely in vain, because there is no core technology, can only purchase ready-made parts from Western countries to assemble weapons, and has no ability to independently develop science and technology. Nowadays, the West is far behind China in drone technology, so Korea relies on the West for all parts, and there is no way to make even a small patrol drone, and in the end it can only pay a high price to buy a civilian version to make up the number.