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 37. KF-21EX and AAP Unmanned Aircraft: A Blueprint for Korean MUM-T
Chapter 37. KF-21EX and AAP Unmanned Aircraft: A Blueprint for Korean MUM-T
KF-21EX and AAP Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Blueprint of the Korean MUM-T For a fighter pilot, a wingman is a lifeline. He must be prepared to watch my blind spots, cover me when I attack, and take the missiles for me if necessary. But human wingmen are too valuable to lose. It takes billions of won and years to train one fighter pilot. So we are now turning to mechanical wingmen: manned and unmanned systems (MUM-T). And at the center are Korea's KF-21EX and AAP. The US Air Force's F-22 and NGAD programs are great. But looking at the price tag takes my breath away.
Even the United States is suffering from the astronomical costs, so how can other countries do it? This is where the strategic value of Korea's KF-21 Boramae shines. When I first saw the KF-21, I got the impression that it was a mixture of the agility of the F-16, the solidity of the F-18, and the shape of the F-22. But what really matters is not how you look. This is the possibility of evolution. In May 2025, final assembly of the first KF-21 mass-produced aircraft began. 40 units of Block 1 will be deployed from 2026, and 80 units of Block 2 will be mass-produced from 2027 to 2032. But the real revolution comes later. This is KF-21EX.
This improved performance version, once called Block 3, will evolve into a 5th generation stealth platform with an internal weapons bay. Some changes have been made to the machine gun placement, and an internal weapons bay has been installed in the semi-buried weapon mounting space. It is equipped with four or eight Meteor long-range air-to-air missiles, a compact smart air-to-ground weapon. External target acquisition equipment has also been changed to built-in type to improve stealth performance. However, the KF-21EX's true role is not as a stand-alone fighter. It's a commander. This is where AAP drones come into play.
The multipurpose unmanned aerial vehicles being developed by KAI are loyal royal wingmen. These guys are small, fast, and above all, expendable. It is a small jet unmanned aerial vehicle with a total length of 3.1 meters, a width of 2.2 meters, a weight of 150 kilograms, and a maximum speed of Mach 0.6 to 0.7. This is the key. War is business. You can't send out a $100 million manned fighter jet to destroy the other side's $1 million missiles. However, if it's an AAP worth 200 to 300 million won, you can give away as much as you want. Imagine sitting in the cockpit of the KF-21EX.
The radar warning receiver screams that the enemy S-400 anti-aircraft missile radar is searching for me. In the past, I would have immediately taken evasive maneuvers, sprayed chaff and flares, and left the battlefield. The mission is a failure. But now I give orders to my wingman, the AAP squadron.
The AAPs immediately increase their speed and rush towards the enemy lines. They inflate their radar cross-section to fool the enemy into thinking they are KF-21s. Enemy anti-aircraft missile batteries take the bait and launch expensive surface-to-air missiles. One AAP is shot down. It's a waste, but it's cheap compared to the value of my life or the KF-21. Meanwhile, I take advantage of the opportunity where the enemy's radar location is revealed to take aim with the targeting pod and drop a precision-guided bomb to silence the enemy's air defense network. AAP is not just a bait.
If you attach a reconnaissance sensor, it becomes an eye, if you attach an electronic warfare pod, it becomes a shield, and if you attach a suicide warhead, it becomes a missile itself. You should pay attention to the word adaptive. This means that the drone's mission equipment can be swapped out like Lego blocks. Today you can go out with a reconnaissance module, tomorrow you can go out with an electronic warfare pod, and the day after tomorrow you can go out with a suicide warhead. The flexibility to perform dozens of missions with a single platform is an essential capability for the Korean military, which has limited budget and resources.
KAI unveiled the Next-Generation Air Combat System (NACS) concept at a National Assembly seminar in late 2024. This is a scenario where one KF-21 controls as many as 4 to 16 unmanned aerial vehicles simultaneously. It is the same concept as the US CCA program or Australia's Ghost Bat, but Korea has its own domestic platform called KF-21. Because we have access to the source code, we can modify and optimize the AI algorithms and communication protocols at will. This means you don't have to wait for permission from Lockheed Martin. Let's draw a tactical scenario. A large enemy squadron approaches over the East Sea. We are outnumbered.
In the past, the KF-21 would have had to risk its life in close combat. However, KF-21EX pilots send the AAP formation forward from the safe airspace behind them. The first group is tasked with deception. They lure the enemy's radar by sending out a strong signal as if they were a manned fighter jet. The moment the enemy turns on the radar and wastes missiles to take the bait, your location is revealed. The second group takes advantage of the gap and infiltrates to launch electronic warfare attacks or launch air-to-air missiles. The KF-21EX pilot watches all these situations on the large display in the cockpit and commands the units.
At the critical moment, when it is determined that the enemy's defense line has collapsed, the KF-21EX directly enters at high speed, strikes the enemy's high-value assets, and then exits. The most difficult thing about the Korean MUM-T is not making it fly. Let's fight together. Cooperation begins with links, but it doesn't end with links alone. In an electronic warfare environment, data is cut off and
It becomes soft and distorted. So AAP should have two modes. When Link is alive, humans provide tactical command, and when Link is dead, it acts autonomously based on mission intent. When ordered to locate radar sources in this area, assess the threat level, and maintain survival priority within approved rules, the drone makes detailed maneuvers on its own. Humans become supervisors, not pilots. In Korean Peninsula conditions, density is more of a problem than distance for the Korean MUM-T. Many threats appear simultaneously in a short period of time. So the KF-21EX becomes both an aerial platform and the tactical hub of the squadron.
AAP becomes distributed arms and eyes. What's important is that this team changes the way it fights. In the past, the squadron moved as one mass. Now the squadron spreads out like a cloud, condensing only when needed. The enemy pours in radar and missiles to hit one point, but the point disappears. Instead, you get multiple dots. Some have expensive pilots on board, while others are cheap but very annoying. The enemy's calculations are messed up. The battlefield is a battle of calculations, and when calculations go wrong, people live. Even industrially, the blueprint is clear.
KF-21EX becomes an upgradeable core node, and AAP becomes an expendable node that can be mass-produced. When high-quality minorities and low-level majorities mix, power explodes. Just as the Roman legion dominated the battlefield by mixing elite legions and auxiliaries, the Korean MUM-T combines elite human platforms and mass unmanned platforms to increase the chances of survival. From the cockpit, this is very realistic. That there is someone who greets me in front of me. It's not technology, it's insurance. Insurance in war is always expensive. Drones are a way to lower those insurance premiums.
Kim Kyung-jin
Attorney · Former Member of the National Assembly · AI Policy Researcher
© 2026 Kim Kyung-jin. All rights reserved.