Government plans to invest a total of 251 billion won in civil and military technology cooperation projects

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and other 14 ministries confirmed the implementation plan for the civil-military technology cooperation project in 2022.

The government plans to invest a total of 251 billion won this year to focus on key technologies in the fourth industrial revolution, including cyber, autonomous driving, and robots, and strategically invest in technology convergence high-tech technologies in space such as satellites and projectiles.

The Civil and Military Technology Cooperation Project is a representative pan-ministerial cooperation project that began in 1999 and has contributed not only to improve the performance of civil and military weapons systems but also to driving future growth engines in the private sector.

For example, the results of the localization project of composite carbon fiber generated about 270 billion won (accumulated as of 2021). The direct collision type small drone has been adopted by the KDHC in 2021 for the rapid acquisition pilot project.

Based on these achievements, the government set this year's budget at a total of 251 billion won, up 19.2% from the previous year. A total of 8 ministries plan to push for 250 tasks (47 new tasks) by investing 191.3 billion won in the △ Civil and Military Technology Development Project, which develops common necessary technologies between civilians and counties, and 48.4 billion won in the △ Civil and Military Technology Transfer Project, which commercialize them.

In particular, the new task to be launched this year focused on the development of core technologies in the 4th industrial revolution to enhance industrial competitiveness through the military's leap forward in high-tech forces and new technologies.

The specific business details are as follows.

▶It will invest 37.69 billion won in seven projects related to civil and military technology development in the core technologies of the 4th industrial revolution, including autonomous driving/robot, cyber, virtual reality/mixed reality (VR/MR).

▶In order to enhance the utilization of new technology in the defense field and commercialization of civil affairs, the government will support 16.6 billion won in track record in eight tasks through defense demonstration.

▶The government will also strategically invest in large-scale tasks in challenging and innovative high-tech fields such as satellites and space projectiles to prepare for future demand (about 193 billion won for 9 projects).

▶In order to create a private-led space launch service market, the National Defense Science Research Institute's solid-fuel technology will be transferred to the private sector, and civil and military plans to develop a joint one-ton solid projectile propulsion agency and design projectiles.

In order to expand, plan to institutionalize the process to support the entire cycle, such as consulting on private technology and military technology matching, technical advancement support, military demonstration, and purchase linkage. In order to expand the utilization of the achievements of the civil-military technology cooperation project, the government plans to improve the system by strengthening legal grounds for promoting preferential purchase.

In addition, the Civil and Military Technology Exchange Association, which had been operated mainly by military, academic, and research institutes, will be expanded to form private sector experts such as private R&D experts and demand companies to discover and plan strategic tasks that combine private capabilities.

Meanwhile, this year's new civil and military technology cooperation project will be announced in March 2022 jointly with related ministries such as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.

Park Jae-young, a manufacturing industry policy officer at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "Civil-military cooperation for the development of new technologies is more important than ever for advanced defense and industrial innovation as technology blocking is intensifying due to competition for technology hegemony. We will expand cooperation with military-related organizations so that excellent private new technologies can be quickly applied to the defense field, and actively support the development of innovative products using defense technology.”

Reported by Smart City Today