ADD

The Agency for Defense Development (ADD) — Korean: 국방과학연구소 — is South Korea's national government agency responsible for defence technology research, development, and acquisition. Established on 6 August 1970 under the Ministry of National Defence (MND) to reduce South Korea's dependence on U.S. weapons imports, ADD is headquartered in Yuseong District, Daejeon, co-located with South Korea's broader scientific research hub. In May 2026 ADD featured prominently in two major announcements: the acceleration of the LAMD Korean Iron Dome to 2029, in which ADD is a named prime contractor, and the introduction of the KUS-FS as South Korea's first MALE drone into operational service.

ADD's mandate covers missiles, aerospace, maritime and underwater systems, surveillance, and electronics — essentially every weapons system in South Korea's indigenous arsenal. It functions as the technical lead for national weapons programmes, working with industrial primes such as LIG Nex1 and Hanwha Aerospace that carry production to scale. ADD-developed systems include the Hyunmoo ballistic and cruise missile family, earlier Cheongung generations, and now the KUS-FS MALE drone. The agency employs several thousand researchers and engineers across its Daejeon complex.

ADD's significance extends beyond the drone topic. As South Korea's defence-industrial ambitions expand — cumulative K9 howitzer exports surpassed ₩14 trillion in 2026, and Korean arms exports are targeting a $37 billion pipeline — ADD underpins the sovereign technology stack that makes Korean exports credible. Any Korea defence-procurement, Korean Peninsula security, or Northeast Asia topic will involve ADD. It is the R&D spine of one of the fastest-growing defence-export nations in the world.