Even with severely less capability, both in terms of performance and onboard sensors and control architecture, these drones could be useful in peacetime, although they would be first to be shot down during an actual conflict. The Reaper 'clone' could patrol South Korea's borders, including the DMZ, while the Global Hawk-like jet could use its higher ceiling and longer endurance to look and listen deeper into South Korean territory for extended periods of time. Both could also be used in a naval patrol context as well, although they would likely be limited to line-of-sight connectivity for high-fidelity, real-time control and exploitation of gathered intelligence. This is a huge difference compared to the U.S., with both the RQ-4 and MQ-9 being highly enabled by high bandwidth satellite datalink capability.
