Korean Drones and Unmanned Systems

Hanwha Aerospace signed memoranda of understanding on September 21, 2026 with 43 domestic drone and UAV companies covering airframes, parts and materials, and mission equipment, positioning itself as the anchor firm of a national unmanned-aircraft supply chain. The pacts cover large UAVs, including the Mojave short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft co-developed with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (9 m length, 16 m wingspan, 3,175 kg maximum takeoff weight, more than 24 hours endurance), as well as small and mid-size military drones. Hanwha targets more than 70 percent domestic content at Mojave mass production and plans to bundle small drones with K9 and K239 Chunmoo package exports. The Mojave was demonstrated at the Defense Drone Technology Exhibition on September 16.

The Ministry of National Defense held its first Defense Drone Technology Exhibition at the Seungjin training ground in Pocheon, Gyeonggi, on September 16, 2026, opening a military range so private firms could prove their systems. Six of 17 demonstrations failed: a Korea Aerospace Industries medium jet-powered unmanned aircraft crashed right after takeoff, a second KAI aircraft lost its signal in flight, a direct-impact attack drone crashed, and a drone-launched air-to-ground guided missile missed its target. Military officials from the UAE and Saudi Arabia were among the visitors. Authorities are investigating radio-frequency interference from the large crowd as a likely cause, and a ministry official said the results were "a process of developing better technology rather than failure." The episode followed an August 25 Navy experiment in which an Agency for Defense Development loitering munition fell into the sea seconds after launch on both attempts. Analysts are calling for more test ranges and flight opportunities, R&D funding concentrated on competitively selected firms, a rebuilt domestic supply chain, and long-term procurement commitments.

ADSYSTEM (AD System), a Cheonan-based drone maker founded in May 2019 by former Air Force maintenance warrant officer Kim Jung-ho, closed a 13 billion won (~$9.9 million) Series A round announced September 16, 2026. LB Investment led, with KDB, JB Investment, Smilegate Investment, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mirae Asset Capital, Flux Ventures, and Innopolis Partners participating, taking reported cumulative funding to about 18.4 billion won after a 300 million won seed in 2024 and a 3 billion won pre-A round in August 2025. The company builds low-observable vertical-takeoff reconnaissance drones (the 15 kg AD-3000 in service and the 35 kg armed AD-4000 due in 2027) that navigate without GPS using visual-inertial odometry and SLAM, with anti-jam datalinks and evasive terminal flight validated in Agency for Defense Development tests. On July 30, 2026 it signed an 8.7 billion won Army contract for 3,792 AD-ME1 training multicopters, due by December 27, 2026 under the 500,000 drone warriors program. Proceeds go to a larger automated plant in Hwaseong and completion of the AD-4000.

The 178th Defense Project Promotion Committee of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration approved on September 15, 2026 the domestic development of a divisional vertical-takeoff-and-landing reconnaissance UAV for the Army worth about 2.16 trillion won (~$1.51 billion), to be developed over 2027 to 2036. The new drone will replace Korean Air's fixed-wing RQ-102K (KUS-FT) with a surveillance capability more than four times greater and an operating radius about 30 percent larger, and rotary, hybrid, and tiltrotor configurations will be considered. The same meeting approved the second batch of 20 MH-60R Seahawk helicopters.

Hanwha Aerospace opened the fifth K9 User Club in Tartu, Estonia on September 2, 2026, drawing about 200 military and industry representatives from seven K9 operator nations (Korea, Estonia, Poland, Norway, Finland, Romania, and Australia) plus observers from Spain and Sweden, the largest turnout to date. Hanwha presented a next-generation operating concept in which VTOL fire-guidance drones detect and track targets, generate firing coordinates for the K9, and then assess impact and battle damage, shortening the sensor-to-shooter loop and reducing reliance on exposed forward observers. The company also showed a digital logistics system cataloguing 700-800 key parts with demand forecasting, to be linked to a Polish spares warehouse. At a Chunmoo user workshop on the sidelines, Hanwha announced the first official Chunmoo User Club will be held in Korea in 2027, and Australia will host the next K9 User Club the same year. Hanwha said it will focus new K9 sales on Western European armies modernizing aging artillery, following the Spain contract that took the K9 operator base to 11 countries.

Airvility, the Seoul-based developer of the AB-U60 drone-carrier and hard-kill interceptor drones, closed a 6.5 billion won Series A on September 1, 2026 led by Silicon Valley venture firm Sage Partners, with Stonebridge Ventures returning and IBK Industrial Bank joining as a new shareholder. Cumulative funding now stands at 10.5 billion won. The proceeds will fund completion of its interceptor line — net-gun, direct-strike, and launcher-type aircraft — targeted for the first half of 2027. The company says it is in supply talks with nine countries across the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America and is targeting 50 billion won in cumulative revenue by 2028.

Counter-drone and attack-drone maker Nearthlab listed on KOSDAQ on August 24, 2026 after pricing its IPO at the top of the range at 41,200 won per share, with institutional demand of 743.5 to 1. The offering raised roughly 37.5 billion won at an implied market capitalization of about 238 billion won. First-half 2026 revenue reached 17.4 billion won, seven times the prior year, and the company posted its first-ever quarterly operating profit in the second quarter. Defense accounted for 86% of first-half revenue, driven by a roughly 14.9 billion won Middle East shipment of the Jaiden (XAiDEN) swarm kamikaze drone, described as Korea's largest single drone export to date. It is the first defense-sector drone company to go public in South Korea.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration approved the basic strategy for the K2 tank performance-improvement program at the 177th Defense Project Promotion Committee on August 11, 2026. The program will spend about 3.448 trillion won (~$2.4 billion) from 2028 to 2046 to fit every K2 in Republic of Korea Army service with a hard-kill active protection system, drone and improvised-explosive-device jammers, and a remote-controlled weapon station, with the first upgraded tanks entering service from 2033. DAPA framed the package as a response to lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war and North Korean drone development, shifting tank survivability from passive armor toward detecting and defeating top-attack missiles, FPV drones, and loitering munitions. The APS, jammers, and weapon stations are expected to be domestically produced, giving Korean suppliers a reference configuration that Hyundai Rotem can also offer to K2 export customers such as Poland.

South Korea and the United States announced on August 10 that they will conduct major joint military exercises from August 17 to 27, incorporating training to counter drones, GPS disruption, and cyberattacks as the allies adapt to North Korea's evolving threat profile. The drills follow the US Marines' first live-fire FPV attack-drone flights on South Korean soil, announced August 6, and come as Seoul accelerates its own counter-drone strategy and 500,000-drone-warrior program. The exercise design reflects lessons from Ukraine and the allies' shift toward integrating unmanned systems and electronic warfare resilience into combined operations on the peninsula.

DAPA Commissioner Lee Yong-chul presented the agency's second-half 2026 policy report to President Lee Jae-myung at the Blue House state guest house on August 5, alongside the Ministry of National Defense and Military Manpower Administration, under the theme of an "irreplaceable Republic of Korea." DAPA set five core tasks: securing key forces for self-reliant defense, innovating toward rapid and open acquisition of advanced capabilities, nurturing future security innovation firms, building a co-prosperous defense industrial base, and strengthening international cooperation and export support for K-defense. Concrete commitments include establishing the nuclear-powered submarine (Jangbogo-N) business plan within 2026 using the KSS-III development organization, moving unmanned systems and counter-drone system acquisition into full swing, and fielding three-axis capabilities such as the KF-21 and the long-range artillery interceptor (LAMD) on schedule.