Mayor Baek Younghyun: "A New Leap Centered on Drones... Will Lead to Enhanced Security"

Pocheon City Holds Seminar on "Strategies to Secure Tactical Drone Superiority"

Pocheon City, Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Baek Younghyun), held a seminar on "Strategies to Secure Tactical Drone Superiority," focusing on AI-based advanced technologies, at the Pocheon Business Center Convention Hall on the 18th.

Baek Younghyun, mayor of Pocheon, is delivering a greeting speech at the seminar on "Strategies to Secure Tactical Drone Superiority," focusing on AI-based advanced technologies, held at the Pocheon Business Center Convention Hall on the 18th. Provided by Pocheon City

The seminar was jointly hosted by Pocheon City, National Assembly member Kim Yongtae, and the Military Tech Association (Chairman Park Jeongi). More than 250 participants attended, including representatives from military-related organizations such as the Ministry of National Defense, the Agency for Defense Development, and the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality, as well as officials from Gyeonggi Province, Daejin University, Daejin Technopark, Hanwha Aerospace, Korean Air, and LIG Nex1, among others from the public, private, academic, and research sectors.

The event began with the announcement of Pocheon City's vision for fostering the drone industry, followed by presentations and discussions on topics including a tactical impact analysis based on the Russia-Ukraine war, trends in drone development by the U.S. Army, strategies to secure tactical drone superiority, corporate case studies, and a comprehensive panel discussion.

The city announced plans to develop military training grounds and the Hantan River area as national-level science and technology testing sites, utilizing them as testbeds for manned and unmanned integrated systems needed by private companies. The city also unveiled plans to establish a Physical AI Drone Test, Evaluation, and Certification Center, as well as an advanced drone education and training center based on augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Through these initiatives, Pocheon aims to create a "one-stop national defense embedded drone specialized cluster" capable of demonstration, research, certification, and production.

Mayor Baek Younghyun stated, "Pocheon is preparing for a new leap forward centered on drones, an advanced industry based on artificial intelligence," adding, "This will lead to strengthened national industrial competitiveness and security."

Meanwhile, Pocheon City has been promoting the national defense drone project as a key initiative since 2023. In April of this year, the city attracted the Seoul National University Intelligent Unmanned Vehicle Gyeonggi Northern Research Institute, and in July, it opened the Pocheon PineVT Electronic Warfare and Security Research Institute, establishing a foundation to become a hub city for industry-academia-research R&D.