The Ministry of National Defense announced Wednesday it will host the "2026 Korea Drone Combat Competition" to promote the development of drones and counter-drone technologies, which are core capabilities for future battlefields.
The competition will be conducted as simulated combat where participating teams are divided into "attack drone teams" and "defense counter-drone teams" to compete in technical capabilities under actual combat scenarios.
Registration runs from Wednesday through the 31st. Winners will be selected through document screening in April, preliminary rounds in June, and finals in September.
Total prize money amounts to 152 million won. First-place winners in each category will receive the Minister of National Defense Award (drone) and the Minister of Science and ICT Award (counter-drone), along with 30 million won in prize money each.
All teams passing the document screening will receive support from a 2.5 billion won budget for demonstration testing.