South Korea starts to train hundreds of thousands of "drone warriors" meaning riflemen who can also operate droneshttps://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/06/south-korea-plans-to-train-entire-military-as-drone-warriors/The goal is to make drones a "universal combat tool" for all troops who could end up in front lines. Just like they all use rifles even if they were truck drivers.Korea's Minister of National Defense, in a June 26 briefing reported by Reuters and other media outlets. The announcement coincides with broader plans to equip individual military units with more cheap and expendable drones for surveillance and strike missions, along with deploying more counter-drone lasers and microwave weapons.>The South Korean defense minister specifically cited the conflicts in Ukraine as inspiring such military reforms with a focus on drone technologies... Ukraine's use of drones and military robots as a force multiplier to offset its numerical disadvantage on the battlefield versus Russia's larger military may carry special resonance for South Korea, given that the South Korean military's current active-duty strength of 450,000 personnel faces a numerical disadvantage against North Korea's active-duty military consisting of more than 1.2 million soldiers...The defense ministry is starting out by providing 11,000 "training drones" to military personnel this year, with the goal of eventually deploying 60,000 drones across the military by 2029. An additional complication comes from the South Korean military looking to procure drones with 100 percent domestically produced components and no Chinese components due to security concerns, according to the defense minister's comments reported by Reuters...
