Korea demonstrates defense tech prowess with expansive weapons arsenal

Domestically developed advanced weapons represent Korea's growing prowess as a weapons manufacturer and supplier to fulfill not only its own defense procurement requirements, but also that of armed forces around the world.

In December, the first of 180 K-2 Black Panther tanks by Hyundai Rotem began arriving in Poland as part of the first batch of main battle tanks pulled from the South Korean Army for speedy delivery.

While Poland plans to domestically manufacture over 800 K-2 tanks beginning in 2025 or 2026, those combined 1,000 tanks constitute just one part of the cumulative $14 billion arms packages signed by Seoul and Warsaw. Other weapons in the Polish deal include 672 South Korean K-9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers — of which two-thirds will be produced in Poland — as well as 48 FA-50 light combat aircraft and 288 K-239 Chunmoo multiple-rocket launchers.

These weapons are some of Korea's most popular big-ticket arms exports, but other items also signify the advances made by the country in its indigenous defense technology. In April 2021, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) unveiled the country's first domestically developed multirole fighter jet, while the military successfully test-fired a locally-developed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the Dosan Ahn Changho submarine in September that same year.

Together, these weapons represent Korea's growing prowess as a weapons manufacturer and supplier to fulfill not only its own defense procurement requirements, but also that of armed forces around the world.

K-2 Black Panther

The K-2 Black Panther is "a state-of-the-art battle tank" that is "always counted among the top five tanks in the world," according to Yang Uk, an associate research fellow at the Asan Institute.

The K-2 combines an auto-loaded 120-millimeter, 55-caliber main gun, advanced composite armor and multiple protection systems to intercept anti-tank missiles.

Not only does its gun possess superior muzzle velocity to the 120-millimeter, 44-caliber gun found on Abrams and Leopard 2 tanks, the K-2 has an autoloader that enables it to fire up to 15 rounds a minute and an automated fire control system that allows the tank's gun and turret to track targets without human intervention.

The K-2 also boasts high maneuverability, with the ability to ford rivers up to 4.2 meters (13.8 feet) in depth with only 20 to 30 minutes of preparation, as well as hydropneumatic suspension that can raise or lower its profile for better concealment.

At a price of $8.5 million per unit, the K-2 is one of the most expensive battle tanks ever developed. But in Turkish evaluations alongside the better established Leopard 2 and Leclerc, the K-2's performance was close enough that Ankara chose the Korean tank as the basis of its Altay tank project.

In February, Korean company Hyundai Doosan Infracore signed a $256.76 million deal with Turkey's BMC to provide it with the engines that will be installed in Altay battle tanks.

K-9 Thunder

Introduced in 1999 by Samsung Techwin, now Hanwha Defense, the K-9 Thunder self-propelled howitzer has been a hit with foreign purchasers.

Over 600 units have been exported around the world to countries like Norway, Poland, Estonia, Finland, India and Turkey. Australia and Egypt also inked deals last year to introduce the K-9 into their armed forces, bringing the K-9's share of the global howitzer market to 52 percent last year.

Observers such as Ryu Hyeong-gon, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute of Defense Technology, attributed the K-9 Thunder's popularity to its mobility and cost-effectiveness.

"While the K-9 tops the German-made PzH 2000 howitzer in terms of cost competitiveness, it only lags slightly in technical terms, creating an even playing field between the pair," he wrote in the May edition of the JoongAng Ilbo monthly publication.

Priced at $3 million per unit, the K-9 only costs roughly a third of the PzH 2000.

Equipped with a 360-degree rotating turret, the K-9 has a firing range of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and moves as fast as 67 kilometers per hour. When stationary, the K-9 can fire within 30 seconds, and within 60 seconds when in motion, due to its automatic fire control system.

Another factor in the K-9's popularity is its interoperability with NATO weapons and its versatility in a wide range of climates and terrains.

"With over 2,000 K-9s in operation in Korea and around the world, the howitzer's maintenance and ease of use has been thoroughly confirmed," Ryu said.

FA-50 Fighting Eagle

The FA-50 is a combat-capable variant of the T-50 Golden Eagle advanced supersonic trainer manufactured by KAI, which was originally intended to train and prepare pilots to fly KF-16 and F-15K fighters.

Korea's development of the T-50 made it the eighth country to possess an indigenous aircraft capable of supersonic flight.

Not only is the T-50 one of the few extant supersonic trainers, its TA-50 and FA-50 derivatives are combat-capable and can be fitted with up to seven external bays that can carry air-to-air and precision-guided air-to-surface weapons.

While the TA-50 and FA-50 are currently integrated with American or Israeli-built radars, KAI aims to integrate more advanced radars in future upgrades.

To date, the FA-50 light fighter has been exported to Iraq, the Philippines, Malaysia and Poland, while the T-50 trainer has been exported to Thailand.

KF-21 Boramae

Although the KF-21 Boramae multirole fighter, which just passed its first armament test in March, currently only has one foreign customer lined up, expectations are high that the 4.5-generation fighter will one day amount to more than just a prestige flagship project for the Korean defense industry.

Development of the KF-21 costs $7.8 billion, making it the most expensive military project in Korean history. Indonesia is shouldering approximately 18 percent of the project in return for the right to produce 48 KF-21 jets locally after receiving one prototype and technical data.

Aimed at replacing the Korean Air Force's aging McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and Northrop F-5 fighter jets, the KF-21 Boramae is a 4.5-generation aircraft, on par with the latest F-16 but less stealthy than the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II developed by Lockheed Martin.

During the KF-21's development process, Korean engineers localized key technologies needed in the indigenous stealth fighter, including the active electronically scanned array, infrared search and tracking system, electro-optical targeting pod and electronic warfare suite.

While disruptions and quality problems in the American-made parts supplies in the past five years led to 535 times when KF-16 fighter jets and 548 times when F-15K fighter jets could not be used by the Air Force, the 65-percent production localization of the KF-21 is likely to mitigate such problems.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration told the National Assembly's Defense Committee in March that it plans to verify the combat suitability of the KF-21 by May, six months earlier than planned, in order to commence mass production next year.

Deployment of the KF-21 is expected to begin in 2026.

According to KAI, 40 KF-21s will be delivered to the Air Force by 2028 and 80 more by 2032. KAI plans to export the jets from 2028 onwards at a price of approximately $65 million per unit.

M-SAM Block-2 Cheongung II

Cheongung II, which means "heaven's bow" in Korean, is a medium-range surface-to-air (M-SAM) Block-2 system that constitutes a core element of Korea's anti-missile air defense program.

A single M-SAM Block-2 battery consists of a mobile multi-function radar made by Hanwha Systems, a command post vehicle made by Kia and Hanwha Defense, and usually four launchers, each carrying eight vertically launched missiles in canisters.

The first M-SAM system, which could intercept enemy aircraft, entered service with the Korean military in 2015. The upgraded M-SAM Block-2, developed by the Agency for Defense Development and manufactured by the three companies, is designed to also intercept lower-tier ballistic missiles flying at altitudes of below 40 kilometers.

LIG Nex1 began mass producing M-SAM Block-2 in 2018 after five years of development and delivered the system to the Korean military in November 2020.

In January last year, the United Arab Emirates signed an agreement to buy the Cheongung II system in a deal worth $3.5 billion, which at the time was not only the single largest defense system export deal to date, but also the first sale of a Korean-made multi-layered anti-missile system to a foreign country.

KSS-III Jang Bogo-III

KSS-III (Jang bogo-III) class is a series of next-generation diesel-electric attack submarines being built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).

The KSS-III project is expected to yield nine diesel-electric attack submarines capable of firing SLBMs, to be built in three batches from 2014 to 2029.

Submarines of the Batch-I design are 83.5 meters long, 9.6 meters wide and displace over 3,350 tons.

The Korean Navy accepted the delivery of the Dosan Ahn Changho, the first KSS-III Batch-I submarine, in August 2021, with the second, the Ahnmu, being delivered in April.

Korea's first indigenously developed SLBM, codenamed Hyunmoo 4-4 and based off the Hyunmoo-2B ballistic missile, was successfully fired from the Dosan Anchangho in September 2021.

According to DSME, over 76 percent of the components for this submarine class were procured from within South Korea, with key systems such as its Air Independent Propulsion, lithium-Ion battery and Korean Vertical Launching System developed domestically, unlike earlier submarines operated by the Korean Navy. The emphasis on domestic technology and procurement for the submarine's crucial parts is likely to aid in the export of the KSS-III in the future.

South Korea won a contract to provide Indonesia with three submarines based on the earlier Jang Bogo-I class in 2011. The first two submarines, KRI Nagapasa and KRI Ardadedali, were delivered in 2017 and 2018, while the third was assembled locally with South Korean support as part of a technology transfer program.

DSME has also submitted a bid to supply a 3,000-tonne variant of the KSS-III, known as the DSME-3000, to the Indian Navy.

AS-21 Redback

Hanwha Aerospace’s AS-21 Redback is a fifth-generation infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) equipped with a Mk44S Bushmaster II 30-millimeter chain gun as its main armament, which can be upgraded to a 40-millimeter variant if necessary. The vehicle also has a 7.62-millimeter coaxially mounted machine gun.

The Redback also comes with blast mitigation systems to protect against mines and improvised explosive devices.

The vehicle is a finalist in Canberra's $18 billion to $27 billion Land 400 Phase 3 project, which aims to overhaul Australia's current fleet of M113AS4 armored personnel carriers and replace them with around 450 units of a new IFV. The Redback, named after a venomous Australian spider, is competing with German company Rheinmetall's Lynx KF41 to win the bid.

Hanwha Defense Australia, a subsidiary of the Korean firm based in Melbourne, has teamed up with other arms companies including Electro Optic Systems and Elbit Systems to produce the Redback.

According to Hanwha, around 20 to 30 percent of the technology and equipment in the Redback is Israeli.

The vehicle's protective armor is made by Plasan, an Israeli vehicle manufacturer, while another Israeli company, Elbit Systems, provided the vehicle with its Iron Vision system, which provides the Redback's crew with 360-degree situational awareness through a head mounted display.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]