Arms co-production with South Korea makes 'very good sense', says US military arms buyer

World and Land War

WASHINGTON — Top defense acquisition officials from the United States and South Korea took the stage today in Washington, touting opportunities to co-produce, develop and sustain weapons ranging from nuclear weapons systems to artillery to robots.

As the United States views China as its main strategic competitor and draws lessons from the war in Ukraine, it is working to establish bilateral military co-production agreements with countries in the Indo-Pacific region, as a decision last year to produce Lockheed Martin's Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) munitions in Australia. And according to the head of South Korea Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) Seok Jong-gun and U.S. Army acquisition chief Doug Bush have no reason why the two longtime allies can't find projects to work on together .

From the U.S. military's perspective, Bush said it could make “very good sense” to co-produce or maintain “traditional” weapons like helicopters, ground combat vehicles, artillery systems and infantry in South Korea, Bush said.

“It's really a win-win,” he added during the event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The advanced defense industrial base, which is very technologically capable, which can clearly support us logistically, including through aircraft maintenance, for example, where we already share fleets, we already operate similar aircraft, that would make a lot of sense, but also in terms of working overtime on production cooperation and sharing resources,” Bush said.

Speaking through a translator, Seok agreed and also cited keen interest in developing new unmanned weapons with the United States, especially at a time when his country's population is shrinking.

“It's hard to have enough force, enough human resources…. We have to apply that to the weapons system and use it to change the game in our battlefield environment,” he said.

“We need co-R&D [research and development]”We need to be able to cooperate across various sectors so that all these manned and unmanned systems replace our traditional systems,” Seok added.

For decades, South Korea has maintained a robust defense industry, but one focused on domestic defense. In recent years, the situation has changed, with Korean companies making major gains around the world thanks, in part, to coordinated support from Seoul.

As a result, Seok used today's event to tout Seoul's defense industrial base efforts to penetrate the U.S. market, particularly in the field of artillery. Specifically, he highlighted Hanwha's interest in entering its K9 Thunder 155-millimeter self-propelled howitzer into a U.S. Army competition for a new mobile howitzer. And Bush, for his part, seemed interested.

“The K9 system, as a 155mm 52 caliber system, is very advanced [and] “In some ways, it's more advanced than our systems because, for example, it has an automatic loading capability,” Bush said, acknowledging the system as a potential candidate for a competition. While he didn't elaborate on the ongoing competition, he noted South Korea's “capability to produce artillery munitions from start to finish … which is extremely important.”

Earlier this year, the service announced that it was stopping all work on its Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) platform prototype, an attempt to add a 30-foot, 58-caliber cannon tube to BAE Systems' Paladin M109A7 self-propelled howitzer. The goal, until then, was to use the modified artillery platform to launch 155mm shells up to 70 km, an increase from the current maximum range of 30 km.

More generally, Bush stressed, having a partner capable of producing weapons used by the U.S. military at home is extremely helpful when considering a regional conflict.

“The importance of getting things done with our allies on the ground, rather than having to rely on very long supply chains to the United States, especially in a conflict – building those stocks, repairing the parts, repairing ammunition stockpiles – is both a deterrent, but it would also help overcome the fight against a sophisticated enemy that is attacking our supply chains in our state and our supply routes,” Bush said.