"Military Ground Unmanned Vehicles in the Spotlight, Systematic Development Is Crucial"

Publication of Korea Automotive Technology Institute Trend Report

The manned-unmanned combined combat system is being demonstrated at the Korea Defense Industry Exhibition. / Goyang = Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seong Giho] Amid the global spotlight on Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) due to the Russia-Ukraine war, there are calls for Korea to accelerate the development of related technologies.

The Korea Automotive Technology Institute stated on the 11th in its report "Trends in Military Unmanned Ground Vehicle Development" that "Autonomous military UGVs are primarily used in rough terrain rather than on structured roads, so they can develop complementarily with commercial autonomous driving technologies, making their value high."

UGVs are vehicles that move on the ground without a human onboard, mainly tasked with high-difficulty operations that are challenging for humans to perform. For military use, they offer advantages such as reducing human casualties, lowering the high acquisition costs of manned combat vehicles by enhancing protection and mobility, and enabling the use of manned-unmanned combined combat systems.

The Automotive Technology Institute introduced cases from countries such as the UK, Australia, Israel, Germany, and Russia, noting that "major countries worldwide are competing to develop military UGVs specialized for transport, combat, reconnaissance, and more."

The Korean military is developing various UGVs in connection with the "Army Tiger 4.0" concept, which aims to motorize, network, and intelligentize army units. It operates one Army Tiger pilot brigade integrating drones, robots, and combat vehicles, and plans to convert all infantry brigades to Army Tiger 4.0 units by 2040.

The Automotive Technology Institute pointed out that "establishing operational concepts considering the technology level, reducing cost/time through common platforms and software frameworks, and developing communication technologies to overcome terrain and weather constraints are important tasks for military UGVs," emphasizing that "technology development is needed to overcome terrain and weather limitations and to enable data communication between unmanned vehicles and between unmanned and manned vehicles."