South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said on Monday it held a "civil-military technology cooperation pitch day" jointly with the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups at the Army Education and Training Command in Jaundae, Daejeon.

The pitch day reviewed how advanced technologies developed by the private sector could be linked to military needs and used, and aimed to create a foundation for the military to use advanced technologies more quickly.

The presentation consulting introduced 10 tasks involving outstanding unmanned mobility technologies and products from industry, academia and research institutes selected through recommendations by the science ministry (KARI) and the SMEs ministry (KISED). Discussions were also held to raise applicability in military operating environments, including feedback on technology demonstrations and consulting on additional improvements.

The science ministry recommended outcomes from the core unmanned mobility technology development project it has supported since 2020 to develop and apply precision navigation, advanced imaging sensors, autonomous navigation and communication technologies among multiple drones by combining the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence with unmanned mobility platforms.

It also shared various outstanding private-sector technologies and products through flight demonstrations of unmanned mobility systems such as cooperative operations of ground and aerial unmanned mobility platforms (KARI and KIMM), integrated control of multiple and heterogeneous unmanned mobility platforms (KETI), and AI-based reconnaissance, transport and detection robots (Newbility), as well as indoor booths involving 21 companies showcasing a 3D converged sensor module (Sejong University), an integrated antenna-and-parts structure (KARI), an AI navigation-assist system for ships (Seedronix), and a solution for automatic construction of drone routes (Bamboos).

In welcoming remarks, Kim Sung-soo (김성수), a director at the science ministry, said, "Today's pitch day has an important meaning as a first step toward a virtuous cycle of self-reliant national defense by applying technologies developed directly by our country to the defense sector." He added, "We will support today's event so it expands to other technology fields and becomes a key platform that connects advanced science and technology to defense and security."