Category: ROK Military

It looks like South Korea is still working out the kinks with their new type 214 submarine:

A defective inverter module was found to have been the cause of an error message that led to a new 214-class submarine having to be towed in the East Sea earlier this month, Navy officials said Sunday.

The Navy decided to inspect all 214-class submarines to ensure that no such problems would happen again, after finding that a defect was reported in the same part of another submarine of the same type two years ago too, officials said.

The latest incident happened on Jan. 23 when the submarine was in waters off the southeastern port city of Pohang. An error message popped up in the vessel’s propulsion system, and officials decided to get the sub towed by a civilian vessel.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

South Korea might rank higher than North Korea, but South Korea has spread their defense spending to include capabilities not needed to counter North Korea. Meanwhile the Kim regime is focused their military solely on war with South Korea:

South Korea has ranked sixth in global military strength.

According to 2021 list from the U.S. ranking agency Global Firepower, South Korea ranks sixth out of 138 countries, the same as last year, with a PowerIndex score of zero-point-1621.

North Korea dropped three slots from 25th to 28th this year.

The GFP ranking is based on each nation’s potential war-making capability across land, sea and air fought by conventional means. It utilizes over 50 individual factors to determine a PowerIndex score with categories ranging from military might and financials to logistical capability and geography.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

There is a number of C2, ISR, and missile defense capabilities that the ROK should be pursuing if they really want to take over OPCON from USFK, but instead they want to build an aircraft carrier:

The military has decided to push ahead with its plan to develop an indigenous light aircraft carrier despite questions over its effectiveness. 

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) decided on the need for the aircraft carrier during a meeting presided over by JCS Chairman Gen. Won In-choul last Wednesday.

The decision came despite the project budget being largely reduced. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) had initially planned to spend 10.1 billion ($9.3 million) won this year for the basic design of the carrier but the Ministry of Economy and Finance reduced the amount to only 100 million won for contracts covering research and holding debates.

The military is planning to establish basic strategies for the development project and complete a feasibility study this year, and begin basic design work next year to finally secure one light aircraft carrier with a 30,000 tons standard displacement and 40,000 tons full-load displacement by 2033. The military is also expected to push ahead with acquiring F-35B stealth fighter jets which can be carried by the vessel.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I believe this has more to do with keeping up with the Japanese than off setting any capability from North Korea.

This seems more like PR than a major policy change:

The military will provide vegetarian and Muslim enlistees with a vegan diet excluding any meat and ham starting next year, the defense ministry said Sunday.

From February, prospective draftees will be asked to mark if they are a vegetarian when they take physical examinations, the ministry said.

Two columns marked as “vegetarian” in both Korean and English will be available on the form.

Such personal information will be sent to the unit that the enlistees will serve in, allowing for a systematic ration program for vegetarian and Muslim soldiers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but currently in the ROK military only two soldiers have identified themselves as Muslim and vegetarian.

Some more changes are coming to the ROK military:

The defense ministry said Wednesday it will complete reducing the mandatory military service period to 18 months by next year as planned as part of a series of reform projects under way to make the military “smaller and stronger.” 

During a meeting on defense reform presided over by Defense Minister Suh Wook, officials said the military is on course to cut the service period for Army draftees to 18 months by December 2021, according to the ministry. 

All able-bodied South Korean men must carry out compulsory military service for about two years in a country that faces North Korea across a heavily fortified border.

Other reform measures include raising the proportion of female service members and decreasing the number of generals with one to four stars.

The number of female service members stood at 7.4 percent this year, 0.6 percentage point higher than the previous year.

Among 76 general positions subject to reduction, 46 have been cut so far, the ministry said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing how long it has been taking for the Koreans to figure out how to domestically produce one of their key defense systems:

South Korea’s arms acquisition agency has decided to equip third batch of K2 Black Panther main battle tanks with a German transmission system, a part of the tank’s power pack that includes a locally developed engine.

The decision is a blow to a 15-yearlong effort to replace the German RENK transmission system with an indigenous one, which local industry expected would pave the way for exporting the tank. (…….)

The failure in local transmission development has also caused setbacks for the tank’s deployment in the South Korean Army.

The Black Panther was co-developed by the state-run Agency for Defense Development and Hyundai Rotem, a defense business arm of Hyundai Motor, to replace M48 Patton tanks and earlier models of K1 tanks that have been service since the 1980s. Prototypes were unveiled in 2007.

Mass production of the first 100 units was approved in 2011, with deployment scheduled for the following year, but the effort was delayed over a faulty engine and a lack of progress on a locally produced transmission. The government then decided to use the German-made power pack consisting of the MTU 883 diesel engine and RENK transmission system for the first batch.

The tanks entered service in 2014, and in that same year, local developers announced they succeeded in developing a 1,500-horsepower power pack that could be installed on the second batch of 100 tanks. However, the deployment of the second batch also faced delays, as the S&T Dynamics-made transmission system repeatedly failed to prove its reliability and durability under transmission production standards, which require a system to run without issue for 320 hours. The second batch of K2s were eventually delivered in 2019.

Defense News

You can read more at the link, but ROK Heads may remember that South Korea has been trying to export the K2 to Turkey. Due to the various delays, Turkey decided to instead conduct a technology transfer with South Korea to develop their own tank.

The ROK military has now been locked down on post to help stop the spread of the coronavirus in South Korea:

The military decided to temporarily ban all troops from vacationing and taking off-installation trips after cluster infections were reported at an Army boot camp amid a nationwide spike in virus cases, the defense ministry said Thursday.

Until Dec. 7, all troops will be subject to tightened social distancing rules in barracks, with vacationing and off-installation visits to be suspended starting Friday, according to the ministry. 

Officers are restricted from having private meetings, while in-person religious gatherings and business trips are also banned. 

“Troops who violate the rules, resulting in a COVID-19 infection or its spread to others will be strongly reprimanded,” the ministry said in a release. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

In a South Korean Army barracks environment a massive spread event like this is likely if just one person gets sick considering how close the soldiers sleep to one another in open bays:

Sixty newly enlisted soldiers tested positive for the new coronavirus at an Army boot camp in the central border town of Yeoncheon on Wednesday, the defense ministry said.

They underwent virus tests after one of their colleagues showed symptoms and tested positive earlier in the day, even though he tested negative in an initial test taken upon his entrance into the camp, according to the ministry. 

They all joined the military on Nov. 10. 

The figure is feared to grow, as the authorities are conducting tests for around 860 new enlistees.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like BTS will eventually do their mandatory military service, but it may be deferred for a while according to the ROK Defense Chief:

The defense ministry is not considering granting South Korean K-pop boy band BTS an exemption of mandatory military service, but a deferral could be an option, Defense Minister Suh Wook said Wednesday. 

“Various social consensus should be formed, but at this stage, we are not considering an exception to the military duties,” Suh told lawmakers during a parliamentary audit. 

His remark came amid a growing debate over whether the seven-member group, with an unprecedented Billboard-topping hit, should warrant such special treatment for their worldwide achievements.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a much needed system to protect the Greater Seoul Metropolitan Area from North Korea’s long range artillery:

South Korea will begin developing its own interceptor system like Israel’s Iron Dome in the next five years to defend the country’s core infrastructure in the capital area against North Korea’s long-range artillery threats, the defense ministry said Monday. 

Unveiling its defense blueprint for 2021-2025, the ministry also said it will officially begin procedures to acquire a light aircraft carrier next year and start the production of a homegrown fighter jet which is currently under development.

The defense program calls for spending 300.7 trillion won (US$253 billion), a 6.1 percent on-year hike on average over the next five years. Of the total, 100 trillion won was allocated for improving defense capabilities, while the remaining 200 trillion won was set for force management.

“When we talk about South Korea’s missile defense system, it usually refers to one targeting North Korea’s Scud-type or stronger missiles, whereas this new interceptor system will focus on protecting the capital area against the North’s long-range artillery such as its 240-mm or 300-mm multiple rocket launchers,” a ministry official said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this domestically produced system will not be available until the late 2020’s or into the 2030’s. It seems with a vulnerability as bad as this one the ROK should just purchase the Iron Dome system from Israel.