South Korea's push to swap soldiers for robots is moving from tech demos to combat drills, with three domestic quadruped developers — Rainbow Robotics, Lion Robotics and LIG Nex1's newly acquired Ghost Robotics — now training their four-legged platforms alongside tanks, helicopters and artillery. Seoul Economic Daily reported on August 3, 2026 that the joint exercises reflect a broader Ministry of National Defense strategy to compensate for a troop base projected to shrink from 450,000 today to roughly 350,000 by 2040.
Robots Alongside Tanks, Helicopters And Marines
Rainbow Robotics, an affiliate of Samsung Electronics, deployed multi-legged reconnaissance robots in a May joint firepower drill involving the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Together with Hyundai Rotem, the Daejeon-based firm has been supplying quadrupeds for counterterrorism missions to the Republic of Korea Army since 2024. Lion Robotics followed in June with a demonstration that put its quadruped alongside K-series tanks and helicopters, and the company is targeting an upgraded military build capable of underwater and sub-zero operation by early 2027.
LIG Nex1 Puts Arms On Vision 60
LIG Nex1, which closed its $240 million controlling-stake acquisition of Philadelphia-based Ghost Robotics in July 2024, is now co-developing a next-generation platform aimed at cutting 40% of the current Vision 60 quadruped's weight, boosting payload 30% and extending battery life 60%. The company also plans to mount a manipulator arm on the robot so it can open doors, handle hazardous materials and retrieve targets — capabilities absent from most fielded quadrupeds. Future Market Insights projects the military security quadruped market will grow from $260 million in 2026 to $3.58 billion by 2036.
The Price And AI-Stack Problem
Rainbow Robotics' quadrupeds reportedly cost more than 100 million won per unit, roughly three to ten times the price of Chinese equivalents from companies like Unitree. Korea University's Hong Seung-woo told Seoul Economic Daily that Korean prices must fall much closer to Chinese levels to be competitive, while Daejeon University's Yoon Dae-yeop warned that fielding more robots without a defense-AI full stack — data, models and real-time cloud — simply demands more operators, defeating the automation case.
The debate echoes ongoing efforts to build a sovereign compute base and, on the Western side, domestic drone manufacturing to keep pace with China.
Reporting based on coverage from Seoul Economic Daily and KED Global.