Study of the Replacement Rate of Military Job Performance Ability According to Science and Technological Innovation

The Republic of Korea (ROK) is making efforts to switch to a technology-intensive military that introduces advanced technology to prevent a security vacuum caused by a shortage of troops due to population decline. This study analyzed the replacement rate of military job performance ability by branch according to the development of science and technology (S&T). In addition, the following conclusions could be derived. First, S&T will significantly replace the human personnel’s job performance by 2040. Second, the degree of replacement by S&T will be high for the troop-intensive branches. Third, low-skilled and standardized jobs are easy to replace by S&T, and high-skilled atypical jobs are difficult to replace. Therefore, the ROK military’s aim of a military with advanced technology needs a customized policy that identifies low-skilled, standardized jobs, replaces them with S&T first, and gradually introduces super-technical skills that fit the attributes of the branches to which those jobs belong.