Twelve General Atomics MQ-1C UAVs will be sent by the US Army to South Korea in March and April. They will be deployed from an air base in Gunsan, North Jeolla province.

General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle (Picture source: General Atomics)

Needless to say this deployment is related to the permanently worsening of relations between North Korea and the US. Exercises involving these armed combat drones will take place after the closing of the Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang.

The General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle is a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aircraft system (UAS). It was developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for the United States Army as an upgrade of the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator. Its endurance is about 30hrs and it can fly up to 280 km/h (170 mph). It has four hardpoints for four AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or four GBU-44 Viper Strike.