South Korea’s National Assembly has approved new legislation to “transform” the country’s approach to defence research and development (R&D).
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said the Defense Science and Technology Innovation Promotion Act was passed during a National Assembly plenary session on 6 March. The legislation is expected to be promulgated within one year, following approval by South Korea’s Cabinet.
South Korea’s new Defense Science and Technology Innovation Promotion Act will be positioned to promote greater levels of collaboration on major defence R&D projects such as the KAI KF-X fighter aircraft. (Korea Aerospace Industries)
DAPA said the new legislation will help South Korea “to make rapid technological changes in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and to systematically support defence R&D”. It added that the act will “transform defence R&D to [support] innovation and enhance science and technology capability through openness and collaboration”.
According to DAPA, the act will create an “open defence R&D system” within South Korea in which the private sector, large corporations, and government agencies will work more closely in developing military technologies. New initiatives to support this objective will be “jointly owned” intellectual property and incentives for small companies to collaborate in national projects.
The legislation will also award “successful failures” in defence R&D to promote greater levels of innovation, said DAPA. This will be supported through a new “performance recognition system” that rewards local companies that invest in developing technologies even if intended results are not immediately achieved because of “technical limitations”, said DAPA.
DAPA’s minister Wang Jung-hong said that the Defense Science and Technology Innovation Promotion Act provides a legal framework for South Korea to become independent in military technologies and to help the country prepare for “rapidly changing future battlefields featuring Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies”.
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