AI Library
The Age of Autonomous Scientific Discovery
Kim Kyung-jin, Attorney at Law
AI Scientists and Self-Driving Labs
This book follows how AI scientists and self-driving labs are changing the way science generates and verifies claims. It covers literature-based discovery, natural-language protocols translated into robot commands, multi-agent research systems, closed-loop laboratories, materials search, the verification gap, chains of evidence, research harnesses, journal ethics, and legal responsibility.
AI Library
A New Era of Life Sciences Opened by Artificial Intelligence
Structural Proteomics, Genomic Foundation Models, Autonomous Laboratories, and Global Governance
Kim Kyung-jin, Attorney at Law
This book is a research volume compiled with artificial intelligence. A human selected the materials and structured the work, while AI models drafted the sentences and cross-checked the facts.
AI Library
The Double Structure of Digital Sovereignty
Europe’s Departure from Palantir and the Chains of American Big Tech
Kim Kyung-jin, Attorney at Law
This is a record of 2026, when European intelligence agencies and defense ministries began removing analytics tools from America’s Palantir. It covers the replacement decisions made by France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), and the Netherlands Ministry of Defense; the incident in which US export controls severed an ally’s ac…
New English Edition
Artificial Intelligence in Horticulture
Kim Kyung-jin, Attorney at Law
Across five chapters and ten sections, this book examines computer vision for crop diagnosis, harvesting robots and autonomous field systems, smart greenhouses and digital twins, precision irrigation and supply-chain quality control, high-throughput phenotyping, and predictive breeding.
New English Edition
Artificial Intelligence in Food Crop Agriculture
Kim Kyung-jin, Attorney at Law
Across six chapters and eighteen sections, the book examines digital agricultural infrastructure, remote sensing, crop diagnosis, yield forecasting, precision irrigation, genomics, molecular breeding, agricultural robotics, climate-smart agriculture, and global food security.
New English Edition
The Future of Forestry and Agroforestry
Kim Kyung-jin, Attorney at Law
Driven by Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation
Across five chapters and fifteen sections, the book follows satellites, drones, LiDAR, digital twins, forest-specific language models, wildfire and pest forecasting, forestry robotics, agroforestry, timber traceability, and forest carbon markets.
New English Edition
Smart Livestock Farming: AI Enters the Barn
Kim Kyung-jin, Attorney at Law
Sensors listen, cameras watch, and artificial intelligence helps farmers decide.
Across five chapters and fifteen sections, the book follows precision livestock farming from animal health and reproduction to robotic milking, virtual fencing, digital twins, methane reduction, welfare, and data ownership.
Table of Contents
Han Dong-hoon, Busan Buk-gu Gap: A Record of the 100 Days Before and After the Election (Mar. 26-Jul. 3, 2026)
Kim Kyung-jin
Table of Contents and 13 sections
From March 26 to July 3, 2026, this record follows the spring after expulsion, the Busan Buk-gu Gap by-election, victory as an independent, and the first bill submitted in the National Assembly.
Table of Contents
Artificial Intelligence and Medicine
Kim Kyung-jin, Attorney at Law
AI in clinical care, hospitals, education, and research
AI in medical imaging, risk prediction, treatment planning, hospital operations, education, and research, with patient safety, privacy, and accountability.
[AI Library] Chapter 38. AI Pilot Technology and LEO Communications Satellites: KAI's NACS Strategy
Chapter 38. AI Pilot Technology and LEO Communications Satellites: KAI's NACS Strategy
AI pilot technology and low-orbit communication satellite: The scariest sound in KAI's NACS strategic fighter is not the missile warning sound. You get used to it. What's scarier is the silence. The silence where the link is cut off, the updates that stop, the battlefield suddenly returns to the 1980s. The goal of a network-centric air combat system such as NACS is to eliminate that silence. It is said that the AI pilot is the brain and the network is the neural network. This is not a romanticism, but a structural truth. There are many companies that make airplanes. But few companies create winning systems.
If you look at the Next-Generation Air Combat System (NACS) strategy presented by KAI, you can see that they have gone beyond the stage of simply selling pieces of metal. They are trying to build a neural network for future air warfare. And the two axes of that neural network are AI pilots and low-orbit communication satellites. First, let’s talk about AI Pilot. Many people have a misconception: AI piloting is not a technology that will make human pilots unemployed. Rather, it is a technology that turns human pilots into superhumans.
When flying the F-16, 80 percent of your brain capacity was devoted to the flight itself and operating the systems. I was busy changing radar modes, checking fuel, and tuning communication frequencies. In fact, only about 20% of the brain capacity was available for making important tactical decisions. The AI pilot technology being developed by KAI reverses this ratio. AI handles 90 percent of mechanical tasks such as flight, detection, and system management. As fuel is low, I will set the optimal return route. I suggest evasive maneuver while approaching the missile at 3 o'clock. AI constantly advises and assists.
The core of this technology is not simple automatic flight, but shared situational awareness. AI detects and prioritizes threats that pilots cannot see. Pilots do not need to interpret complex instrument panels, but only need to make the final decision to attack or evade based on the information organized by AI. This significantly speeds up the OODA loop. When the enemy is thinking, we are already shooting. In 2024, KAI tested the performance of basic navigation and obstacle avoidance using a miniature multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle.
We plan to demonstrate it with a real aircraft in 2025, and apply AI pilot technology to actual manned fighters and unmanned aircraft for testing in 2027. If all NACS plans according to the roadmap are realized, in future air battles, cheap multi-purpose drones will neutralize enemy air defenses with self-destruction and electronic warfare, and then unmanned fighter jets
will attack the remaining air defenses with air-to-ground weapons, and a manned fighter with a pilot on board will finish the attack. However, no matter how good an AI pilot is, he has limitations on his own. We need data. And we need a lot of data, very quickly. This is where low-orbit communication satellites come into play. Existing geostationary satellites are too far. It's 35,800 kilometers. There is a delay in the signal coming and going. A 0.5 second delay may be fine when watching YouTube, but it can be fatal when you have to intercept a missile flying at Mach 2.
On the other hand, constellations of low-Earth orbit satellites hovering at altitudes of 300 to 1,500 kilometers have virtually no latency. Radio wave loss and delay are low, making it possible to provide high-speed communication services at the level of a terrestrial network. This is a key element of hyperspace and low-latency 6G communication. In June 2025, KAI signed a 6G low-orbit communication satellite technology development agreement worth approximately KRW 184 billion with the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Aerospace Administration, and the Korea Information and Communication Planning and Evaluation Institute.
By 2030, the entire process from development of the main body of two communication satellites to assembly, testing, and launch will be carried out. This is a project to become self-sufficient in core technologies and secure the ability to enter the global market through the development of the world's first domestic low-orbit satellite communication system based on 3GPP 6G standards. KAI has established a cooperation system with KT and KTSat. We plan to pursue commercialization and global commercialization of the world's first 6G satellite through a strategic cooperation system that integrates space, communications, and services.
KAI's NACS strategy is based on the premise that KF-21, unmanned aerial vehicles, early warning aircraft, and ground control stations are tied together through this low-orbit satellite network. This is hyper-connectivity. Let's say a KF-21 flies over North Korea. The aircraft's own radar is turned off. This is to maintain stealth. However, high-resolution images captured by low-orbit satellites and information detected by early warning devices at the rear are transmitted to the cockpit of the KF-21 in real time. At the same time, KF-21's AI analyzes this information and issues attack orders to drones flying together.
All of this happens in milliseconds. No matter how smart the AI is, if the network dies, it is alone. Sensor data and command data must flow in, and the results must flow out to colleagues. The advantage of low-Earth orbit satellites is simple. If the delay is low and the constellation is tight, even if it is cut off, it can be diverted to another satellite. It is not a structure that relies on one or two geostationary orbits, but a structure that relies on tens or hundreds of distributed nodes. It becomes difficult for an enemy to paralyze the neural network by hitting one point.
In battlefield communications, this is not a luxury, but a survival option.
Of course, low-orbit satellites are not omnipotent. Satellites are also correct. The ground station is also correct. Links are also jammed. So the core of the NACS strategy is not to use low-orbit, but to link multi-layer communication. The idea is to have multiple layers of tactically controllable routes: low earth orbit, ground tactical networks, aerial relays, maritime platforms, even commercial networks if necessary. On top of that, AI evaluates network conditions and redirects traffic. If humans worry about routing during combat, it's already too late.
The network must recover automatically, and automatic recovery is not possible without AI. For NACS to become the center of Air Force power, three things are needed. First, edge AI. Cloud is good, but he dies often on the battlefield. Fighter jets and drones themselves have to do the math. Second, data trust. In a world where cyber is addicted to data, each track and target information must carry with it provenance, time, and reliability. Third, the human interface. Pilots are not geniuses, but workers operating under oxygen and G-limits. When the screen gets complicated, tactics die.
AI should not increase information, but reduce it and provide accurate information. From KAI's perspective, NACS is not a single platform development but an ecosystem design. The KF-21 series becomes the boarding node of the ecosystem, and UAVs such as AAP become the distributed nodes. Low-Earth orbit satellites become the upper-level backbone. And the software that ties these three together, the Tactical OS, is the real weapon. Fighter aircraft become obsolete over time. However, the network and AI tactical logic survives updates. This is where Korea's choices diverge. If you go hardware-centric, you have to create a new aircraft every time.
If you go software-centric, the aircraft is the platform and the power comes from the algorithm. This is the big picture KAI draws. The goal is not to improve the performance of a single fighter plane, but to create an ecosystem that encompasses the entire battlefield. KAI President Kang Gu-young announced that he would build a manned and unmanned complex system based on 6G low-orbit communication satellites and also take on the challenge of commercializing satellite exports.
Based on the satellite package export model linked to aircraft export, we are pursuing strategic cooperation with overseas countries that want to build their own communication networks. Korea has an opportunity. We have the world's best semiconductor technology and communications infrastructure. We have also secured launch vehicle technology to launch a low-orbit satellite. There are many excellent human resources who can create AI algorithms. If all of these elements are melted together in the melting pot called NACS, we will have a unique Korean aerospace power that is different from that of the United States or China.
Of course, there is a long way to go. Challenges include verifying reliable military AI, ensuring the security of satellite communications, and securing computing power inside the aircraft to process this massive data.
It's piled up. But don't forget. The country that produced the F-16 under license developed and launched its own supersonic fighter called the KF-21 in just 30 years. Finally, none of this is possible without political decision. Space and cyber mock military boundaries. If budget, authority, and data are scattered, NACS can only be completed on paper. In the previous chapter, integration is speed, and speed is survival. The ruler of the skies is ultimately the one who sees fastest, produces reliable information fastest, and shoots fastest.
In the future, the engine of that speed will likely not be the pilot's wrist, but the AI and low-Earth orbit link. KAI’s NACS strategy is more than just an ambition. It is an inevitable evolution for survival.
Kim Kyung-jin
Attorney · Former Member of the National Assembly · AI Policy Researcher
© 2026 Kim Kyung-jin. All rights reserved.