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KT and Hanwha Systems are set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) next week to cooperate in applying internet of things (IoT) capabilities in the defense industry in a bid to keep up with the times of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
"The signing of the MOU will take place on March 21," a source said, Monday.
KT is the nation's biggest fixed-line internet operator and its second-largest mobile carrier, while Hanwha Systems is a defense company specializing in the area of defense electronics.
"The two companies plan to expand their cooperation in pushing for relevant projects based on their MOU," the source added.
IoT, along with artificial intelligence (AI), is one of the key elements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that uses the ability to connect devices and other objects through the internet. The technology helps improve efficiency and convenience across the board.
According to the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade in January, the nation's prowess in AI and IoT in the defense sector is in the early stages of development. The think tank said its assessment indicated that the defense area has yet to make full use of the advanced technologies.
Taking the signing of the MOU as an opportunity, KT and the defense arm of conglomerate Hanwha Group are expected to spur an innovation drive in defense.
IoT capabilities could be applied in developing next generation systems such as "smart soldiers" who would wear sensor-based combat uniforms and wearable computers to effectively carry out network centric warfare.
This would change the war paradigm to "softkill" from "hardkill."
Softkill measures are based on a sensor-based weapons system that can successfully paralyze the enemy's military forces and their weapons systems without physically and directly attacking them with hardkill measures.
High-tech solutions involving IoT could also be used in a "smart recruit management system," designed to comprehensively oversee health conditions.
The smart management system would operate by attaching devices to the wrists of soldiers that automatically transmit information such as location and training duration and progress, in real time to instructors.
The wearable devices could be used to evaluate the physical condition of each soldier by providing data including temperature, pulse and the amount of movement exerted in real time.
Such a system would help prevent unexpected accidents as it will help detect signs of ill health in soldiers in advance.
Hanwha Systems has been making remarkable efforts to make use of technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on future battlefields.
Last month, the company, in cooperation with state-run science research university Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), launched a project to co-develop AI technologies to be applied to military weapons, joining the global competition to develop autonomous arms.
AI arms, which would search for and eliminate targets without human control, are called the third revolution on the battlefield after gunpowder and nuclear weapons.
For its part, KT is also going full swing to develop AI technologies, with its recent announcement of the development of an AI-based platform for fixed-line and wireless network operations.
The company said in January that its Neuroflow is an operations intelligence platform that collects and analyzes the ballooning volume of data collected from wired and wireless network systems.