SEOUL– South Korea’s state arms procurement agency launched a new research center Thursday to develop basic technologies to link and efficiently run a group of military surveillance and reconnaissance satellites, its officials said.
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said the center opened at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, 164 kilometers south of Seoul, under a program to develop defense technologies in cooperation with industries, universities and research institutes.
The new center focuses on connecting and operating a constellation of military satellites to ensure smooth communication among them so as to maximize the effectiveness of their space operations, according to DAPA.
South Korea currently does not have any military surveillance satellite, but it plans to launch its first military satellite later this year as part of a plan to put into orbit a total of five satellites by the mid-2020s.
DAPA plans to invest about 22.1 billion won (US$18.1 million) for the center’s research activities through 2028.
The center consists of four main research rooms to carry out more than a dozen tasks in total for the development of the basic technologies. For those tasks, 14 universities and four companies, including Seoul National University and LIG Nex1, will take part, according to DAPA.
Source: Yonhap News Agency