Funjin (CEO Kim Deuk-hwa), a specialist in defense artificial intelligence (AI), announced on the twenty first that it had attracted 13 billion won price of equity investment from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and signed a strategic partnership.
Through mutual technological cooperation, the 2 firms plan to jointly develop key element technologies required for the event of AI pilots and air combat-based AI staff. We decided to cooperate on projects to arrange for the long run battlefield environment, corresponding to an AI model for autonomous drone mission performance using AI on-device technology and an AI mission autonomy project to efficiently control complex aerial resources.
As Korea’s leading aerospace systems company, KAI has successfully developed the KT-1 basic trainer, T-50 advanced trainer, Surion mobile helicopter, and Songol Falcon unmanned aerial vehicle. As well as, the event of a sophisticated light armed helicopter (LAH) for contemporary battlefields and the KF-21 (Korean fighter) system, which is taken into account a key future military force, are in progress. As well as, we’re expanding our space business area from the event of geostationary orbit composite satellites, next-generation medium-sized satellites for the primary time in Korea led by a personal company, and military reconnaissance satellites to the general assembly of Korean launch vehicles.
In 2023, Funjin launched Kill Web Matching (KWM), Korea’s only AI staff technology on the commercialization stage, developed independently, and succeeded in signing a contract inside six months. Last June, KWM’s AI staff function was showcased through a pilot operation of the Army Army Tiger Boost Project. Recently, it was chosen as one among the 100 most progressive defense firms within the AI field.
A KAI official said, “With this equity investment, we expect synergies corresponding to strengthening AI and software development capabilities, that are key elements in developing the next-generation aerial combat system in preparation for changes in the long run battlefield environment based on unmanned and autonomous systems.”
Deukhwa Kim, CEO of Funjin, said, “We are going to strive to grow to be a number one future defense AI company by combining KAI’s aerospace technology and Funjin’s defense AI technology.”
Reporter Jang Se-min semim99@aitimes.com
