Category: ROK Military

It will be interesting to see how reliable the drones will be in the mountains during the winter months if they do move forward with this plan:

The Defense Ministry says it plans to use drones to transport military supplies to mountainous areas.

A South Korean military official says starting this year, the military will begin testing drone transport of common military items like ammunition and first aid equipment.

Drones are far cheaper and can reach difficult or denied areas.

If the testing works out, all branches of the military would eventually adopt drone transport technology and the military would aim to commercialize it within five years.     [KBS World Radio]

Condolences to the families of the two ROK pilots killed in this tragic crash:

An Air Force jet crashed into a mountain in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province, 216 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Thursday, killing two pilots, the Air Force said.

The military initially said both ejected from the jet safely. No civilian damage was reported. The crash site is close to a golf course.

The crashed jet was an F-15K that was returning to an Air Force base in Daegu after an airstrike exercise. The crash happened at 2:47 p.m.  [Korea Times]

Considering that the two pilots did not eject whatever happened, happened extremely fast before they could react and eject.  Yonhap News has identified the two pilots as  Capt. Choi, aged 29, and 1st Lt. Park, 27.  Fortunately no civilians were killed on the ground.

Another example of a concession made to North Korea without the Kim regime even asking:

The military is toning down a handover ceremony for a batch of new F-35A state-of-the-art fighters from the U.S. as an inter-Korean summit looms. The jets, which cost W7.3 trillion, are intended to counter the nuclear and missile threat from North Korea (US$1=W1,067).

The event will be held at the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth, Texas on March 28. Air Force Chief of Staff Lee Wang-keun and Jeon Jei-guk, the chief of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, both abruptly canceled plans to attend.

“Neither can attend the ceremony,” a military spokesman said. “Lee must stay in the country to maintain military preparedness while [President Moon Jae-in] is on an overseas trip, and Jeon will accompany the president.”  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but you would at least think the ROK government would be honest and just say no one is attending in order to not upset North Korea instead of the cover story they are using.

By the way Seoul has bought 40 of the F-35A’s at a cost of 120 billion won a piece.

So does this mean that the US Fires Brigade will no longer be needed?:

South Korea plans to set up a new guided missile unit that can take down North Korea‘s long-range artillery sites.

Local broadcaster KBS reported that the South Korean army will combine its first and third military headquarters to launch a new ground operation command in October.

Under the new command, an artillery force will be established and armed with tactical ground-to-ground guided missiles that are capable of striking large targets within a short period of time.

A single launch pad can fire four missiles in a matter of seconds, with the rockets capable of traveling more than 93 miles.

Equipped with a precision guidance function, the missiles are said to be ideal for targeting North Korea’s long-range artillery concentrated along the military demarcation line.

Experts say the artillery brigade will also be able to curb enemy threats at an early stage and thermobaric weapons attached onto the warheads could potentially incinerate everything inside a targeted mineshaft. [UPI]

You can read more at the link.

It is stressful enough that Korean men have to do mandatory military service, but now they may have to continue to have a travel ban in place just to appease small business owners that profit from the travel ban:

The South Korean military is reconsidering its initial plan to completely lift the travel ban for soldiers following opposition to the move from representatives from military-heavy regions.

According to the ministry, Vice Minister Suh Choo-suk held a meeting on Wednesday with the mayors or county governors from the inter-Korean border areas and agreed to come up with an “improvement scheme” regarding the plan to abolish the restriction on the areas soldiers can visit during their leave.

The ministry plans to announce a revised plan within the year, considering various factors, including military readiness, military personnel’s basic human rights and economic impacts on the border regions.

Last month, the military accepted a proposal from an internal reform committee to lift the restrictions to guarantee soldiers their human rights. However, the governments and small business owners in the border regions have protested the measure, saying it will negatively affect the regional economies.   [KBS Global]

We had an interesting post in the Open Thread about the mandatory service military obligation for dual US-ROK male citizens.  This posting from Ask A Korean highlights what the issue is about:

The unintended consequence of the 2010 law that, all of a sudden, it created a large number of Korean dual citizenship holders who did not even know that they were dual citizens. If you are a draft-eligible age, and you realized only recently that you were in fact a dual citizen, you cannot even renounce your Korean citizenship because of the 2005 law. The result:  we have a messed up situation in which diaspora Koreans, who may have never visited Korea and not speak a lick of Korean, may be draft eligible for Korean military. He can enter Korea freely, but may get stopped at the airport on his way out of Korea, like all other draft-eligible male Korean citizens.  [Ask A Korean]

Someone who is a dual citizen definitely faces the possibility of getting detained at the airport in South Korea because they have not done their mandatory military service.  I had to go deep into the ROK Drop archives to find this, but there have been examples of dual US-ROK citizens being detained at the airport in Korea despite being enlisted in the US military:

The Defense Ministry and the Military Manpower Administration may have to wait for years before they can get their hands on two Koreans who violated the military service law by enlisting in the U.S. Army.

The two Koreans aged 21 and 22 who have U.S. citizenship and residence respectively but retain their Korean nationality volunteered for the U.S. Army without performing their mandatory military service here, the MMA said Friday. Both were supposed to join the Korean armed forces in 2004 but both enlisted with U.S, forces instead. One instead went with them to Germany and both are now ironically with the U.S. Forces Korea as privates first class.  (…)

The first came to Korea on leave last June, and the travel ban stopped him from returning to his unit in Germany. He was indicted here the same month but the indictment was suspended because he serves in the U.S. military. He then transferred to the USFK. The MMA says it will make both of them serve in the Korean forces as well. Article 71 of the Military Service Law says those with dual nationality who violate the law must perform their military duties in Korea before they turn 35.

This dual citizenship issue should definitely be a concern for anyone with male children that may be considered dual citizens.  However, there is a way to renounce ROK citizenship at age 18 to ensure that the male child is not detained at the airport to do their mandatory military service in South Korea.  Here is the information posted on the US Embassy website for the Republic of Korea on this issue:

All malecitizens of the Republic of Korea (ROK), including dual nationals, have military service responsibilities in accordance with the Korean Constitution and the Military Service Law.

It appears over the course of the Moon Jae-in presidency the South Korean military will be shrunk considerably:

 

South Korea’s military will reduce the number of troops to half a million by 2022 as part of a new round of defense reforms, the Ministry of National Defense said Friday.

The mandatory service period of rank-and-file soldiers will be shortened to 18 months from the current 21 months, according to the ministry’s report to Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon on its 2018 policies.

South Korea has 620,000 troops, including 483,000 Army service members, compared to North Korea’s 1.1 million armed forces.

The left-leaning Moon Jae-in administration has pushed for the so-called defense reform 2.0 aimed at making the nation’s military smaller but stronger.

It is seeking to expand the employment of civilians for non-combat missions, with more active-duty soldiers assigned to field operations. The number of general-grade officers, currently totaling around 430, will be adjusted. Some expect it to decrease by 70-80.

The ministry plans to complete a master plan for military reform by April for speedy legislative procedures.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I have to wonder where the saved money from the personnel costs will be going to?

This reduction is likely caused by the bad behavior some ROK generals have been accused of in recent years.  Regardless this is a huge drop in the number of general officers:

The Ministry of National Defense is pushing for a massive reduction in the number of generals as part of a military reform plan, government sources said Sunday.

The ministry is said to be preparing for a plan to gradually lower the quota of generals starting this year, possibly by 70-80, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Currently, there are about 430 generals in the South Korean troops.

The Moon Jae-in government pledged to slim down the bloated top brass of the military. The previous Lee Myung-bak government had planned in 2011 to reduce the number of generals by 60, or 15 percent, by 2020. The plan was revised down to 40 under his successor Park Geun-hye.  [Yonhap]

It seems that if the ROK wants to use their amphibious landing ships to project power from with their F-35B fighters they can find a way to modify the decks of the ships:

South Korea’s military has begun to consider operating F-35B stealth aircraft from its newest amphibious landing ship slated to be deployed in 2020, as part of efforts to strengthen its naval power, sources said Monday.

The authorities have recently discussed whether the second 14,000-ton Dokdo-class vessel can carry the F-35B fighter, a short takeoff and vertical landing variant of the U.S.-made fifth-generation warplane.

“I understand that the military top brass have recently discussed whether they can introduce a small number of F-35B fighters and operate them aboard the new ship that has already been deployed and one to be additionally built,” a military source told Yonhap News Agency, declining to be named.

“As far as I know, the idea is being weighed in light of maximizing the strategic value of the vessel’s capabilities,” he added.

The existing Dokdo ship is seen capable of operating only transport helicopters because its deck is not made of materials that can withstand high temperatures or friction caused by fighter jet operations.

“Considerations will continue about whether we can run F-35Bs by redesigning the decks of the Dokdo and the new ship that is being constructed,” another source said.

In 2014, Seoul decided to purchase 40 F-35A fighters for deployment from 2018 through 2021 at a cost of 7.3 trillion won (US$6.75 billion). The F-35A is the fighter’s air force variant, while the F-35B and F-35C are for marines and aircraft carrier-based operations, respectively.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The ROK military is embracing the future of combat by using swarms of cheaply made and weaponized drones to attack enemy targets:

South Korea’s Army will create a combat unit of weaponized drones next year to help counter North Korea’s threats, an official said Tuesday.

The Army calls the envisioned defense asset a “dronebot,” a combination of the words “drone” and “robot.”

“The Army plans to set up a special organization to lead the development of dronebots, establish a standard platform and expand the dronebot program by function,” the Army official said, requesting anonymity. “To begin with, we will launch a dronebot combat unit next year and use it as a ‘game changer’ in warfare.”

The team will operate reconnaissance dronebots against such core North Korean targets as nuclear and missile sites. In case of a contingency, swarms of dronebots will be mobilized to launch attacks.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.