SK Telecom Unveils Defense AI Technology at Army Festival

SK Telecom (017670) said on the 6th that it showcased defense AI transformation technologies built on artificial intelligence and telecommunications at the 2026 Ground Forces Festival, taking part as the only private-sector company at the military culture event.

The festival, organized by Army Headquarters, ran from the 1st to the 5th on the runway at Gyeryongdae in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong Province. The event opened the Army's present and future, reshaped by advanced science and technology, to the general public. SK Telecom participated in the policy promotion pavilion during the festival, exhibiting and demonstrating technologies and services applicable to actual defense operations under its "T Military" brand, including an AI staff officer system for operational support and low-orbit satellite-based communications and security technologies.

The AI staff officer is a system that supports commanders' situational awareness and tactical decisions by drawing on a data platform that links the various data sets held by the military, an ontology that structures the meaning of and relationships among those data sets, and a digital twin that reproduces real battlefield environments in virtual space.

SK Telecom designed the exhibit so that visitors and military officials could see the full process firsthand, from data collection and analysis to the reconstruction of battlefield conditions using the digital twin and the resulting decision support. The aim was to highlight how AI technology can be applied in real defense settings. The company also introduced low-orbit satellite-based communications along with security technologies such as quantum cryptography and stealth Wi-Fi, which would underpin an AI-based future combat system.

For the exhibition, SK Telecom worked with a range of partners including SK Telink, Techtree Innovation, Enhance, Mercury, KCS and Pablo Air. "On future battlefields, AI that rapidly analyzes vast amounts of information to support decision-making, and the stable and secure communications infrastructure that underpins it, will become even more important," said Kim Goo-young, head of SK Telecom's enterprise business unit. "We will develop the AI and telecommunications technologies we hold into solutions optimized for defense operations, aggressively expand our defense AI transformation business and lead South Korea's future defense innovation."