The Moon Jae-in administration, which came to power in 2017, set forth “A country of the people and justice, Korea” as the fundament of the administration and included “Peaceful and prosperous Korean peninsula” as one of its five objectives. Then, specific measures to bring this blueprint to reality were established.

In 2018, the Ministry of National Defense completed the plans for reform in the fields of military structure, defense operations, military culture, and the defense industry. The basic directions for the reform were included in Defense Reform 2.0. The aim is to implement smart defense and digitally powerful military befitting the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to prevent reduced combat power resulting from reduction of troops and compulsory military service period and to strengthen the competitiveness of the defense industry.

The National Defense Science and Technology Innovation Promotion Act was passed by the National Assembly. The Act is aimed at making a transition in defense R&D, which was traditionally viewed as a means to acquire weapons, toward a more enterprising and innovative R&D system and further enhancing defense science and technology capabilities based on openness and collaborations. The Act contains the details of promoting technological development projects in the manner of developing innovative and groundbreaking defense technology first, irrespective of the weapons system demands, and driving up the demand for the developed weapons system (i.e.Tech Push). This necessitates the R&D direction of ADD to switch to enterprising and innovative defense R&D.

Korea, which was one of the poorest countries in the world immediately after the Korean War, has undergone a tremendous transformation and is one of the most technologically advanced nations today. Korea’s defense science and technology, in particular, has been progressing along with the advancement of ADD.

However, since the end of the Cold War, polarization among nations around the globe has deepened and non-national and transnational risk factors have been on the rise. This trend has brought upon more uncertainties in the security environment. Plus, the cutting-edge technology brought upon by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as artificial intelligence and 5G communication, things that have been possible only in imagination in the past are gradually being turned into reality. With such emerging technology, the military sector is also expanding beyond the traditional battlefields of land, sea, and air and moving warfare into space and cyber domains.

ADD puts forth the ADD R&D Vision by predicting the future of warfare based on the cutting-edge technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as well as the situation with Korea’s national security, within the framework of the government policy and the new law.