Drones crash repeatedly at public military showcase as Ahn vows to build 500,000-strong drone force

Drones crashed repeatedly and some weapons systems failed to function normally at a public demonstration the Ministry of National Defense organized to test civilian drone technology in a real military environment. Even as Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back has championed a plan to cultivate a "500,000-strong drone warrior force," the showcase — watched by hundreds of civilians — was marked by drones tumbling from the sky and failed target intercepts. Military authorities have launched a probe, focusing on the possibility of frequency interference.

The Defense Ministry said Thursday that the successive drone crashes at the technology demonstration were "not a failure, but part of the process of developing better technology."

A ministry official said the event — held for the first time this year — was civilian-led and designed to let domestic companies verify the military applicability of the drone and counter-drone systems they are developing, while giving industry a chance to receive military feedback and pursue iterative technological improvement. "Although some companies' products did not succeed in their demonstrations, we will continue to play a role in encouraging the drone industry to press ahead with technology development without fear of failure," the official added.

The ministry held the "2026 Defense Drone Technology Exhibition" on Wednesday at Seungjin Training Ground in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province. The event was organized to test and verify cutting-edge domestic drone and counter-drone technologies in an actual military environment and to support their rapid adoption by the armed forces. About 2,000 people attended, including senior civilian, government and military officials, service members, USFK personnel, domestic and foreign industry representatives, and local residents.

The two-part technology demonstration ran into trouble from the start, however. Some drones hovered in place and failed to proceed to the next stage, and others appeared to freeze mid-flight as if data transmission had been disrupted.

A demonstration of LIG D&A's "Vision 60," an air-to-ground guided munition carried by a drone, also fell short of its planned sequence. Of five missiles scheduled for the demonstration, only two hit their targets before the event was halted. A "hard-kill" demonstration — in which a drone is physically struck and neutralized — also failed to hit the target drone.

Both jet-engine drones developed by Korea Aerospace Industries crashed to the ground immediately after takeoff. A direct-impact attack drone developed by a small defense company also failed to fly properly and went down. Problems emerged in other demonstrations as well, including a swarm of rotary-wing drones.

Hundreds of residents from Pocheon had been invited to watch the demonstrations. Each time a drone crashed or a demonstration was cut short, murmuring spread through the spectator stands. The event announcer repeatedly explained that failures are an asset in the process of technology development, but some attendees left before the event concluded.

A rehearsal held at the same site recently had reportedly gone without incident. Military authorities are investigating the cause, with frequency interference on the day of the event among the leading possibilities. The specific cause of each individual crash and malfunction has not yet been determined, however.

A drone demonstration failure at a public military event also occurred last month. The Navy and the Agency for Defense Development conducted a combat experiment with a medium-sized loitering munition aboard the landing ship Marado in the South Sea on Aug. 25, but both drones launched crashed into the water within seconds. The Agency for Defense Development later said its investigation found the cause to be a simple defect in the drone launch tube.

Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry used the event to expand the number of dedicated drone and counter-drone verification units to nine in total. Those units will directly operate civilian technologies and conduct combat experiments across a range of operational environments. The ministry said it plans to build on the Army units' results to extend the program to the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, supporting the broader adoption of advanced civilian technology by the military.