South Korea to Develop Insect, Bird-Inspired Drones as Part of Future UAV Strategy

South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) plans to create drones taking cues from nature.

Under the “Future Defense 2030 Technology Strategy: Drone” project, DAPA plans to develop mid- to long-term drone technology roadmap for drone development and a common platform for rotary-wing drones.

In a statement, the state arms procurement agency said the drone mid- to long-term technology strategy consists of three main contents:

- To create rotorcraft with different requirements, DAPA will analyze the drone requirements of each group to identify 20 sets that can be used on a common platform.

- Next, it will propose ideas for new future defense drones in consideration of the future battlefield environment and technological development trends, such as insect-type multi-drone, bird-type multi-drone, carrier drone, and multi-purpose common platform drone, so that they can be widely used in the military and industry-university-research

- Finally, through the drone technology level analysis, 166 core technologies that can lead the future defense drone development are derived and subdivided into 87 defense-led securing technologies, 66 civilian-led securing technologies, and 13 technologies for securing civil-military cooperation.