An Air Force MQ-9 Reaper taxis after landing during the of Freedom Flag exercise at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, Oct. 23, 2024. (James Johnson/U.S. Air Force)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — The U.S. military is planning to deploy the MQ-9 Reaper drone to an air base in South Korea for its first long-term rotation in the country, according to news reports Monday.
An unspecified number of Reapers will operate out of Kunsan, home of the 8th Fighter Wing about 115 miles south of Seoul, for three months starting later this year, unnamed military officials said in reports Monday by South Korea’s Chosun Daily and Yonhap News.
A 7th Air Force spokeswoman declined Tuesday to confirm or elaborate on the reports, citing the command’s policy of not discussing “potential or planned operations.”
“Our focus remains on readiness while sustaining and strengthening our alliance with [South Korea],” Maj. Laura Hayden wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes.
The Reapers are U.S. military assets and South Korea’s military cannot confirm the details in the reports, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Jeon Ha Gyu said Monday during a news conference in Seoul.
South Korea’s military does not possess the MQ-9; however, it operates four RQ-4B Global Hawks that it purchased from the U.S. for $657 million in 2014.
The Reaper is a remotely piloted drone powered by a turboprop engine, according to its manufacturer, General Atomics. It can fly for 27 hours and reach a peak altitude of 50,000 feet.
While the $56.5 million aircraft can perform reconnaissance missions, it can also be equipped with a 3,850-pound payload that includes AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs, according to the Air Force.
The long-range drone has previously flown over South Korea for large-scale, joint aerial exercises.
Air Force photos taken April 30 show California Air National Guardsmen loading a Hellfire missile onto a Reaper at Kunsan during Freedom Flag, a 12-day aerial exercise that began April 21.
Freedom Flag included approximately 90 aircraft from both countries, including South Korean air force FA-50s and U.S. Marine Corps F-35Bs.
Reapers took part in air interdiction, defensive counter-air and combat search-and-rescue drills during the exercise, according to a 7th Air Force news release at the time.
An MQ-9 also took flight over South Korea during the Freedom Flag exercise in October.
During that drill, an MQ-9 dropped an inert JDAM using surveillance data from a South Korean air force RQ-4B at the Jikdo Island in the Yellow Sea, according to the 7th Air Force and Ministry of National Defense.
