“Isn’t MakinaRocks a company that does manufacturing AI?”
MakinaRocks builds physical AI — intelligence that understands and operates in the real world. From factories to field environments, our mission has always been to solve complex, high-impact problems where failure isn’t an option. Defense is the natural extension of that work: environments defined by massive data flows, strict security, unpredictable conditions, and zero tolerance for error.
Physical AI: Understanding context in the real world
The common thread between manufacturing and defense is physical AI — AI that perceives the environment, processes it in real time, makes decisions, and acts autonomously. MakinaRocks develops physical AI to function reliably where the stakes are highest. In defense, this isn’t aspirational — it’s essential. From predictive maintenance to decision support, physical AI is the foundation for operational resilience under uncertainty.
🔗 Opening New Horizons with Real-World AI
Our AI technologies and operational know-how, validated in some of the world’s most complex manufacturing settings, can be extended to defense, where equipment complexity and real-time decision-making are paramount. In defense, AI must process vast signals and data from sensor networks, surveillance platforms, combat systems, and C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers & Intelligence) systems. This mirrors the industrial world, where our AI already ingests and analyzes massive data streams from factories, production lines, and critical infrastructure.
Defense is manufacturing at scale
“Defense relies on manufacturing-scale operations — exactly where our AI can be applied.”
Navies rely on ships. Air Forces on aircraft. The Army — once manpower-centric — is shifting rapidly to armored vehicles, self-propelled artillery, and tanks. Across every branch, maintenance and sustainment have become mission-critical.
Each service operates vast maintenance depots — factories in disguise — that manage the entire lifecycle of military equipment: preventive maintenance, parts replacement, performance upgrades. Their scale and complexity rival, and often surpass, civilian manufacturing facilities. These depots are the perfect ground for AI-driven predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and resource optimization.
MakinaRocks has already proven AI in the harshest industrial environments: automotive, robotics, semiconductors, batteries, energy, logistics. By harnessing torrents of data from production lines and equipment, our AI delivers anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, and process optimization at scale.
The same capabilities extend directly to defense. Our AI ensures equipment stays operational and mission-ready under the most demanding conditions. Systems that analyze sensor data, optimize resources, and detect failures before they occur can dramatically improve readiness and sustainment efficiency.
Can AI be trusted without data—or when data changes?
“Before war breaks out, we cannot gather precise data on the enemy. This is why MLOps is essential.”
In war, a commander’s decisions determine survival and outcome. Yet the AI that supports those decisions faces a paradox: in peacetime, the necessary data is scarce; in conflict, it is volatile and unpredictable. Waiting for perfect data is not an option.
The right strategy is to build functional models early — even if their accuracy is limited — and improve them continuously through iterative retraining as real-world data becomes available.
🔗 5 Reasons Why Defense AI Is Challenging
This challenge mirrors industry. Unexpected variables, shifting conditions, and constant data fluctuations impact productivity and stability. Here too, accuracy matters. MakinaRocks addresses this with Runway, our MLOps-based AI platform. Runway automates the full lifecycle — data collection, development, training, deployment, retraining — to ensure stable AI operations even under volatile data conditions.
In defense terms: Runway builds initial models during “peacetime,” when data is scarce, and continuously retrains them during “wartime.” The result is AI that adapts like the battlefield itself — resilient, responsive, and battle-ready.
🔗 MLOps: The Foundation for Scalable and Reliable AI
Reliable AI operations depend on security
“Most defense data is classified, and even simple plaintext must be managed within closed networks.”
Defense systems run on air-gapped and closed-network environments, isolated from the outside world to guard against cyberattacks and leaks. In combat, sensitive data must be processed in real time — and even a single breach can compromise an operation.
MakinaRocks designed Runway to perform in exactly these conditions. It has proven itself under the National Intelligence Service’s strictest standards in both public and private sectors. Our expertise spans custom deployments for closed networks and integration with legacy systems critical to mission operations. With this foundation, MakinaRocks delivers defense AI that operates in real time, meets uncompromising security requirements, and remains mission-ready under the harshest constraints.
MakinaRocks begins the era of reliable defense AI.
MakinaRocks is built on the conviction that Physical AI must be secure, resilient, and real-world ready. For this expertise, we were the only AI platform company named to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s Defense Innovation Company 100, and we are preparing to lead defense-related initiatives that will define the next era of mission-ready AI.
To support this effort, we have assembled a dedicated team of experts with military backgrounds, combining experience in MLOps platforms for closed networks, anomaly detection across critical systems, and process optimization at industrial scale. By uniting these capabilities with a deep understanding of defense environments and system architectures, MakinaRocks is not just prepared to support defense AI strategies — we are building them.
Note: This post was translated from the original Korean version by Kyoungyeon Kim.
