| Rr: | Song-gol-mae |
| Mr: | Songgolmae |
The KAI RQ-101 Songgolmae is a South Korean military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) in 2000.[1] [2] RQ-101 is an unarmed UAV designed for corps commanders and has been deployed and serviced by the South Korean Army since 2002 to collect military intelligence.[3] [4] It was officially given the name Songgolmae (Korean:, "peregrine falcon").[5]
The South Korean Army was using Searcher UAVs, which were introduced from Israel. In 1991, South Korea began developing its own UAVs for use in ground surveillance and reconnaissance operations by Corps-level units of the South Korean Army. Exploratory development of South Korean military UAVs was carried out from 1991 to 1992, and system development began in 1993, and operational tests were conducted to verify performance until 1997, and the development was officially completed in 2000. Officially, it is not known how many RQ-101s are in service with the South Korean Army. According to public sources, there were several dozen in 2017.[6]
The RQ-101 has a wingspan of 6.4 meters (21 ft) and a total length of 4.7 meters (15 ft) and is made of high-strength, light carbon fiber and glass fiber composites. The 52-horsepower (39 kW) engine accelerates the propeller-driven device to a maximum speed of and a cruising speed of . The maximum altitude is about 4,500 meter (14,800 ft). The aircraft can stay in the air for about six hours and cover a radius of to . The gross weight is 215kg (474lb), the maximum take-off weight is 290kg (640lb), and it has a payload weight of 50kg (110lb) for military operations.
The aircraft is equipped with electro-optics (EO), forward-looking infrared (FLIR), GPS/INS navigation, and line of sight (LOS) data link for surveillance and reconnaissance and real-time target acquisition.[7] By default, the aircraft has an HD video camera that can send live images.[8]
The performance improvement project was carried out from 2009 to 2011, and the hardware of the mission equipment and ground control equipment was upgraded, and three minor improvements were made until 2015. However, the RQ-101 is no longer undergoing performance improvement due to lack of additional development budget, and the Korea Aerospace Industries is currently developing a next-generation UAV named the NCUAV to replace the RQ-101 since 2012.