"Plunging Immediately After Takeoff"...Advanced Unmanned Aircraft Crash in Series at Defense Ministry Drone Demonstration

[Financial News] Unmanned aircraft developed by domestic defense companies crashed one after another shortly after takeoff at an advanced drone technology demonstration ambitiously hosted by the Ministry of National Defense. Military authorities launched an investigation, citing frequency interference caused by the large crowd as a leading possible cause.
On the 16th, the Ministry of National Defense held the 2026 Defense Drone Technology Expo at the Seungjin Training Area in Pocheon, with more than 2,000 people in attendance, including key civilian, government and military officials, United States Forces Korea (USFK) personnel and defense industry representatives.
The event was organized for the first time this year to showcase domestically developed drones and advanced counter-drone technologies in one place, test and verify them in an actual military environment, and help accelerate their deployment.

The problems occurred during demonstrations of technologies for operating drones developed by private companies in real-world conditions. A medium-sized jet-engine unmanned aircraft developed by KAI plunged to the ground immediately after takeoff. A direct-impact drone developed by a small or midsize defense company also crashed after failing to fly properly.
Problems also occurred with multiple other aircraft, including a swarm rotary-wing drone and an air-to-ground guided missile mounted on a drone, causing the demonstrations to fail one after another. The outcome contrasted sharply with the successful rehearsal held at the same location just one day earlier, on the 15th.

Military authorities are investigating the cause of the successive failures during the technology demonstrations. For now, they are focusing on frequency interference and signal confusion caused by the large number of people who gathered at the event at the same time.
An official from the Ministry of National Defense said, "Although some companies' products did not successfully complete the demonstrations, this should be viewed not as a failure but as part of the process of developing better technology." The official added, "Since frequency interference is suspected to be the main cause in most cases, we will continue working to develop technologies that can resolve such interference in the future and support the industry."
This is not the first time that a public unmanned aircraft demonstration by the military has failed. On the 25th of last month, during a combat test of a medium-sized suicide unmanned aircraft conducted by the Navy and the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) aboard ROKS Marado in waters off the southern coast, both aircraft launched crashed into the sea within seconds of takeoff. At the time, ADD identified a simple defect caused by misalignment of the opening and closing door of the unmanned aircraft's launch tube as the cause.
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