REACH OUT
2024-07-03
38 years of development of many of core technologies and products required for weapon systems, focusing on ‘Motion and Drive control’
The Defense Acquisition Program
Administration designates and fosters small and medium-sized defense companies
with research and development capabilities and high technology applicable to
national defense in high-tech strategic industries such as space, AI,
Manned-Unmanned Teaming, robots, and semiconductors as 'Defense Innovation
Industry 100'. Starting in December 2022, approximately 20 companies will be selected every year for five years, and so far, 35 companies have been selected.
News Today begins a series report on 'Defense Innovation Industry 100' that visit and introduce these companies.
[News Today = Kim Han-kyung, Security Reporter] For 38 years since its foundation in 1986, 'YoungPoong Electronics Co., Ltd.' has been developing dozens of various types of core technologies and major products required for the domestically produced defense weapon systems, focusing on 'Drive & Motion Control and Power' capable of high precision control in the field based on precision control and signal processing technology. Recently, it was selected as the first one of 'Defense Innovation Industry 100' for its ‘Electronic warfare equipment’ technology in the drone field, leading the development of a flight control system with cyber-electronic warfare protection and reliability, which are key requirements for national defense drones.
YoungPoong Electronics, located in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do, has 94 research and development personnel out of 240 employees, or about 39%. According to the ‘2023 Defense Industry Management Analysis’ by the Korea Defense Industry Association, the average R&D workforce of the 83 companies surveyed is around 26%. However, YoungPoong Electronics Co., Ltd. has a solid research and development workforce that far exceeds the average, with a culture that emphasizes technological value.
Based on these research and development personnel, YoungPpoong Electronics has continued to develop key parts and components of major domestic weapon systems, including ground, air, naval, guided weapon systems, and space launch vehicles. As a result, it has developed and supplied 24 types of avionics for domestic military aircraft, including Surion (KUH) and Light Armed Helicopter (LAH), KT-1 trainer, FA-50 light attack aircraft, KF-21 fighter and etc.
Among these, the representative item, Integrated Standby Instrument (ISI) for KUH helicopters was successfully developed and standardized over a total of 7 years from 2011 to 2017 to localize the existing British Meggitt product, and was subsequently applied to KUH, expanding its supply to the recently developed LAH and KF-21. After successful development, ISI conducted several costly flight tests to obtain airworthiness certification and was verified as suitable for use on aircraft.
In recognition of such localization development efforts, YoungPoong received a Presidential Award at the Defense Quality Management Award Ceremony in 2017, an Award from the Minister of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration for localization of defense components and excellent research and development in 2018, and from the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality Award for Military Supplies Field Quality · Technology Innovation Contest in 2020 indeed. In particular, ISI obtained Defense Quality mark from the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality last year, and was selected as a priority recommended item in the aerospace sector by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, gaining a foothold for exports.
As a hidden leader in K-defense exports, YoungPoong is supplying core components such as for K-9, K-10, K-2, FA-50, and Chunmu missiles, through system integrator companies in eight countries, including Poland and the balance from the export order will reach 200 billion won. Through this activities, following the sales records of 62.6 billion won in last year, the company aims to achieve sales of 100 billion won for the first time since its establishment in this year.
The company will never rest on its laurels, but as a future challenge, it is collaborating with system integrator companies to develop electric actuators and controllers in the Urban Air Mobility(UAM) field and is making continuous efforts on development, including ultra-small flight data recorders for UAM through our own investments, so continuous growth is expected for the future.
Since 2019, the company has been developing a multi-purpose drone that is able to withstand external influences such as electromagnetic phenomena and bad weather. Based on the technology accumulated in this process, we developed an attack and reconnaissance drone equipped with a self-developed flight control computer, and received an excellence award in the attack drone field at the 'Dronebot Challenge' hosted by the ROKA TRADOC in 2022, demonstrating the proven excellent flight control performance.
Afterwards, we focused on the fact that the hardware and software of the flight control system, which mostly relies on foreign products, are vulnerable to electronic warfare attacks and security from wartime enemies, making it difficult for the deployment of the drones for military use. In order to fundamentally solve this problem, the 'Development of a defense drone flight control system with cyber electronic warfare protection and reliability' will be carried out until April 2026 through an R&D support project exclusively for 'Defense Innovation Industry 100' , and then a prototype will be produced and is expected to verify performance.
YoungPoong Electronics is sparing no efforts to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the core of the 4th Industrial Revolution, in order to meet the future defense science and technology development policy and the Principle Plan of ROK's Defense Innovation 4.0. The companhy recently signed a technical cooperation agreement with ‘A2Mind Co., Ltd.’, Korea’s leading AI research company, on the 5th, and are working to improve our military’s weapon system by applying AI technology to various weapon system components such as drones, EO/IR, and controllers.
In addition, the company is not sparing its own investment in developing ultra-precision satellites and inertial integrated navigation systems (EGI) for ground, air, and space. EGI gets lost of interest from European countries at the ‘2023 Poland MSPO Exhibition’ and verified its overseas marketability. Hayeol Ryu, CEO, said, “Based on our differentiated defense component technology, we will focus on entering the global defense industry market, especially in the U.S. and Europe, by securing excellent research and development personnel and technological innovation.”
