S. Korea to expand transfer of defense technology for commercial purposes

The government will significantly expand the transfer of defense technologies to the private sector to help companies take advantage of them to develop new non-military products, the arms procurement agency said Thursday.

The budget set aside for technology transfer purposes rose nearly ninefold to 8.7 billion won ($7.9 million) next year from 1 billion won allocated this year, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.

The agency plans to spend the increased budget in supporting companies' commercialization of the transferred technologies and development of actual products.

This year, two projects to develop a portable toxic gas release detector and a maritime oil leak monitoring drone were selected as demo businesses.

"We will maximize the effect of private-military technology cooperation, creating a virtuous cycle of tech development between the two sectors," the agency said in a release. (Yonhap)