Responding to Drone Crime with R&D... Next Year's Pan-Government Plan Confirmed

On the 18th, the Army Dronebot Combat System was demonstrated at the 'Korea Defense Industry Exhibition' held at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Jinhyung Kang, Goyang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Junho] The government has rolled up its sleeves to tackle drone-related crimes starting next year. Various ministries have joined forces to prevent illegal activities involving drones, such as invading privacy through unauthorized filming or disrupting air traffic by illegal flights near airports.

The Ministry of Science and ICT finalized the implementation plan for next year's unmanned mobility technology development project on the 17th. The government will invest 38 billion KRW over the course of next year to carry out this plan, marking a 41% increase compared to this year. Of this, the government will focus on supporting the development of technologies to counter illegal drones and communication technologies for long-distance flight drones with 8.8 billion KRW.

The development of technologies to counter illegal drones involves two other ministries besides the Ministry of Science and ICT. Over five years starting this year, the Ministry of Science and ICT will invest 47.5 billion KRW to analyze vulnerabilities of illegal drones and develop technologies to neutralize them in real time, as well as ground-based response systems using radar and electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) equipment. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (18 billion KRW) will develop aerial response systems such as drone cops that patrol shadow areas and track and neutralize illegal drones upon detection. The National Police Agency (10 billion KRW) will develop forensic technologies for real-time analysis and accident investigation of illegal drones. After the conclusion of this project, the ministries will also pursue technology development to respond to terrorist drone attacks equipped with weapons.

Investment will also be further expanded next year in the unmanned mobility core technology development project (18.2 billion KRW) and DNA+ drone technology development (9.6 billion KRW), both initiated this year. Additionally, the Ministry of Science and ICT (2 billion KRW), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (3.7 billion KRW), and National Police Agency (1.8 billion KRW) will continue the development of the "Low-altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Traffic Management System" technology.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Science and ICT will newly embark on developing 433MHz-based communication technology for low-altitude beyond-visual-line-of-sight long-distance operation of unmanned mobility. The ministry will invest 2 billion KRW for this purpose and provide 200 million KRW to projects aimed at nurturing talent demanded by the domestic unmanned mobility industry.

Kim Bong-su, Director of Basic and Fundamental Research Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "To respond to the increasingly diverse illegal activities using drones, it is urgent to secure related technologies such as systems capable of neutralizing them. We will strive to achieve tangible results by actively coordinating policies and projects for securing core and fundamental unmanned mobility technologies, developing business models and markets, and expanding infrastructure."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.