Defense minister calls for unified military academy education platform

Defense Minister An Gyu-baek has formally announced plans to build an integrated military education platform centered on merging the Army, Navy and Air Force academies and to complete a sweeping reform of military academy education.

Speaking at the opening of a senior commanders' conference at the Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday, An said military academies "must not remain places that simply produce elite officers for each branch," adding that "a fundamental paradigm shift is needed so they can cultivate national talent capable of effectively responding to future battlefields and leading society."

He pointed to the convergence of rapidly spreading advanced technologies — AI, drones and quantum systems — with a sharp decline in military-eligible personnel expected after 2040 due to the demographic cliff, saying the era ahead is one where "ultimately, the quality of each individual officer becomes more important."

"If we do not start training officers now who can design drone battlefields and conceive AI-based operational systems, we cannot guarantee the future of our military after 2040," An said. "If we miss this golden time, the gap will immediately translate into a loss of national interest and could become a matter of national survival."

An also raised concerns about declining competitiveness at the academies. "Admission scores at the military academies have been falling steadily," he said, calling it evidence that "the current academies are failing to convince talented individuals that they can realize their vision and potential there."

While saying he trusted that "everyone, from the superintendents down to the cadets, is working harder than anyone," An stressed that "fundamental reform is urgently needed — in the vision and goals of academy education, the faculty, facilities and infrastructure, and the curriculum."

He called for redesigning the academies as "a larger vessel for cultivating national talent," setting as the goal the creation of a top-tier integrated education platform that harmonizes science and technology education with branch-specific specialized training.

An's remarks on the academies Tuesday are directly tied to the Defense Ministry's ongoing push for a unified military academy.

An has publicly raised the need to merge the three service academies on multiple occasions. In April, he said the ministry would "recruit talented individuals and concentrate outstanding faculty through a unified Army-Navy-Air Force academy, expanding the pool of competition."

The core of the integration plan under review is a "2+2 system." Under the proposal, a new National Military Academy would be established to conduct unified admissions for Army, Navy and Air Force cadets. During the first two years, all cadets would receive integrated foundational and common education together. From the third year onward, they would split into their respective service academies or specialized institutions for advanced and branch-specific training.

An presented the enhancement of joint operational capability as the central rationale for the academy education reform.

"We speak of an integrated 'all-domain battlefield,' but in practice each branch is talking about its own all-domain operations — the Army's, the Air Force's, the Navy's and Marine Corps'," he said. "Each branch's expertise must be preserved, but that expertise must not become a barrier between them."

An defined jointness not as a goal to be pursued but as "an element that must be embedded throughout the entire officer training process."

"Jointness is not something that develops on its own in the field," he said. "It must be ingrained through a process of learning together, training together and thinking together from the academy stage — and then further refined and evolved in the field."

The Defense Ministry is targeting the announcement of a concrete education reform and integration plan, incorporating feedback from the academies, as early as this month. The ministry said it will pursue the process in parallel with efforts to address concerns from each branch, alumni associations and parent groups, alongside public deliberation procedures.