Korea Defense Tech Hackathon
Time to Fill the Gaps in UAS and Counter UAS Innovation for the Free World 🚀
Join us and 150+ hackers from Korea and around the world for the Korea Defense Tech Hackathon, taking place October 9-11th, 2026, in Uiseong-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea.
This hackathon will be dedicated entirely to unmanned aerial systems and counter-UAS technologies – with actual field testing!
Goal
Over three days, software·hardware engineers, founders, researchers, public-sector stake holders, investors and end users(military personnels) will come together to design, build, and test new solutions in one place. Participants will have access to a dedicated outdoor drone testing environment with open airspace, enabling teams to move directly from ideas and prototypes to real-world trials.
Due to the purpose of the hackathon which is “to fill in the gaps in UAS and Counter UAS Innovations of the Free World”, the operational challenges will be announced two months prior to the actual event. The focus will be to develop “non-existing solutions for the current threats”, and “non-existing solutions for the upcoming threats”.
Throughout the weekend, teams will receive continuous feedback from experienced operators, domain experts and end users (military personnels) to ensure they are solving relevant problems and building novel solutions with a credible path towards deployment.
When authoritarian regimes gather, they build “Alabuga”, and Free World will also build our own version of “Alabuga”, dispersed around the world, each serving its own purpose, filling each others gaps. This hackathon will bring the ecosystem of South Korea together and demonstrate the talent, technical capabilities, and ambition needed to fill the gaps of the Free World, in order for the Free World to stay Free.
Our goal is not simply to produce weekend prototypes, or find a winner. Our goal is to find the potential teams who is willing to keep continue testing, developing, and deploying their solutions until they can build the the solutions the Free World needs but doesn't yet have.
Visitors
To give participants time and space to focus on their projects, we'll have no visitors during the hackathon. If you're curious about the outcomes and what the teams have built, please sign up as a visitor for our demo day on Sunday.
Preliminary Agenda
Friday, October 9, 2026
Kick-off Day
10:00 - Doors open, Networking
11:00 - Welcome by Organizers, Keynote / Presentation of Mentors and Challenges
12:00 - Team Formation / Open-ended Networking
14:00 - Start of Hacking
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Hacking continues all day
10:00~18:00 - Airfield Open Hours
Sunday, October 11, 2026
08:00 - Testing of Presentations
09:00 - Breakfast Break, End of Hacking
Demo Day (Open to Visitors)
11:00 - Indoor Pitching
15:00 - Outdoor Pitching / Demonstration
17:00 - Closure / After Party & Networking