UNIST will serve as a hub for collaboration on defense AI, bringing together military, industry, and academic partners as Korea expands the use of artificial intelligence (AI) across its armed forces. 

The Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence (AIGS) at UNIST has been selected to lead the Busan center supporting AI development for the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) and Marine Corps (ROKMC). The center is part of the Defense AI Talent Development Program, led by the Ministry of National Defense and the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP).

The initiative will establish five centers across Korea for joint research using defense data—Yongsan for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), Yangjae for the ROK Air Force, Pangyo and Daejeon for the ROK Army, and Busan for the ROKN and ROKMC. UNIST, KAIST, Korea University, Seoul National University, and Ajou University will lead the respective centers through 2030.

Based in Centum City, the Busan center will develop AI technologies around the operational needs of the Navy and Marine Corps. UNIST researchers will work with military partners, local governments, and defense companies, connecting AI research with the region's maritime and defense industries.

Three projects are planned for the first year, including an AI system for military logistics and inventory management; a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) large language model for military doctrine, manuals, guidelines, and legal cases—as well as  Ender's Foundry , a platform for developing AI-based decision-support capabilities for the ROKN. The technologies will be tested and validated in military environments.

Jae-Young Sim, Dean of UNIST AIGS, will lead the project. Ten UNIST faculty members will work across five areas: reliable detection, LLMs and ontology, situational analysis and decision-making, safe and trustworthy AI, and on-device AI and hardware technologies.

The teams pair Professors Jae-Young Sim and Seungjoon Yang in reliable detection, Professors Youngsoo Jang and Yeon-Chang Lee in LLMs and ontology, Professors Seungyul Han and Hyungho Na in situational analysis and decision-making, Professors Sung Whan Yoon and Saerom Park in safe and trustworthy AI, and Professors Taesik Gong and Gangil Byun in on-device AI and hardware technologies.

Defense AI companies will also be invited to join the Busan center as R&D partners, alongside training programs focused on problems drawn from military needs.

“It is meaningful to have an opportunity to apply our AI research to strengthening defense capabilities,” said Professor Sung Whan Yoon, who will oversee the project's implementation. “We will carry out the project with a strong sense of responsibility.”

“Developing AI technologies that meet the needs of the Navy and Marine Corps, and validating them in military settings, is an opportunity to extend UNIST's research capabilities into defense,” said Professor Sim. “By connecting this work with the maritime industrial base of Busan and Gyeongnam, we aim to strengthen the region’s role in defense AI.”