Tag: ROK Army

The ROK Army is getting a defense upgrade with the introduction of the XK2 “Black Panther“:

Korea’s first domestically-made amphibious tank, featuring an auto loaded 120-mm cannon, rolled off the assembly line in Changwon, Friday (March 2).

The next-generation tank, code named “XK2” and nicknamed “Black Panther,” will replace the older K1 and American M47/48 tanks starting in 2011, defense officials said.

The new model features an auto loaded 120 mm cannon, can reach speeds of up to 70 km per hour, and can cross rivers as deep as 4.1 meters using a snorkle, according to its developer, the Agency for Defense Development (ADD).

At the launch ceremony for the tank, President Roh Moo-hyun stressed that Korea’s development of a top-tier weapon such as the XK2 with its own technology testifies to the country’s defense capability.

“The development of the world’s top-level tank–in both mobility and firepower–with our own technology shows the world our commitment to self-defense,” Roh said during the ceremony held at the ADD facilities in Changwon, Gyeongsang nam-do (South Gyeongsang Province).

This really does appear to be a great tank. The tank is a bit lighter than a US M1 and the armament and speed are slightly better. The tank can also drive underwater with a big snorkel which I would love to see a demonstration of how long it can stay underwater like that. You can watch this KBS video of the K1 in action which includes a demonstration of it underwater capability. The XK2 just like the K1 also maintains the hydraulic technology that allows the tank to fire down hill, which is extremely important in mountainous terrain like Korea.

The automatic loader feature of the XK2 is a great innovation, which means that the tank crew is one man less than a normal tank crew. It may not seem like a big deal, but when you start massing producing these tanks across the force that saved man power adds up. Additionally it has its own C4I technology which means that the tank commander has a screen where he can digitally see through GPS technology where friendly and enemy units are located at and send messages and issue orders through this screen to adjacent units. This is a great system if it works. What I’m curious about is if the C4I technology is compatible with US C4I? Would the ROK Army assets appear on US military C4I screens? I suspect not.

The air defense capabilities of the tank may be over stated. I have seen M1 tanks during National Training Center rotations shoot down helicopters plenty of times by massing fires on the target. US air defenders who used to man Bradley Stinger Fighting Vehicles would train shooting down helicopters using the Bradley’s 25mm cannon. So the fact that the XK2’s main gun can shoot down a helicopter is nothing new. What is interesting is that the fitted the tank with a Identify Friendly Foe (IFF) system that is used to interrogate aircraft to see if they are hostile or not. This tends to indicate that the tank may be used as a primary air defense weapon. It will be interesting to see how this plays out because if the tank can properly execute an air defense mission then that could save more man power by not needing as many air defense soldiers.

The importance of saving man power may not be important now for the ROK Army, but it will be important if the ROK decides implement an all volunteer force in the future. First of all you don’t have to recruit as many people and secondly you don’t have to pay to train or retain those soldiers that would normally fill that position. Over the long run that becomes a big defense savings. Additionally, countries that Korea may attempt to sell this system to, may have all volunteer forces which makes the system more appealing to them to purchase.

The price of the tank is steep though, costing about $8.5 million US dollars per tank. Compare that cost to a US M1 Abrams that the latest models cost around $4.3 million US dollars per tank. The bottom line is that the tank is slightly better than an M1 Abrams, but is it worth double the cost of buying a M1? That all depends on the size of the pocket book of countries interested in buying it. Especially when you factor things like how much does it cost to up keep the tank per year? Additionally, the availability of parts is another critical aspect of this tank for any international buyers.

I think it is important to realize that the production of this new tank is more likely driven initially by its export potential than President Roh’s claims to a “commitment to self-defense”. Take a look for example at Korea’s recent introduction of the K-9/K-10 “Thunder” self propelled artillery system.

The K9/K10 system is one of the best self propelled artillery system in the world and superior even to the US M109 “Paladin” system and vastly superior if equipped with the K10 package. However, before the system was even fielded to the ROK Army it was being sold and exported abroad. The first country the developer of the K9, Samsung Techwin, sold the system to was Turkey who received its first batch of K9s in 2004 and has since bought the license from Samsung Techwin to domestically produce the K9 in Turkey. Turkey is expected to field a force of 300 K9s by 2011. This total deal for Samsung Techwin was worth a reported $1 billion US dollars.

Samsung Techwin is continuing to test the system for potential international buyers such as Malaysia, Australia, and Spain to name a few interested countries. The K9 is expected to claim 31% of the world’s self propelled artillery market by 2015 making them the world’s leaders in this field over rivals such as Germany and Japan. While the K9 is being sold overseas to countries like Turkey, the ROK Army still hasn’t been fully fielded with the new K9.

I expect the XK2 will probably also be aggressively marketed overseas to potential buyers just like the K9/K10. This statement by ADD Direct Ahn Dong-man tends to support my thesis:

Having developed a tank, a land weapon symbol, based on independent technology, we not only can secure superiority over the panzer force of North Korea but also can export the tank since it has high-tech performance and price competitiveness.

You can read more here and here.

Nomad is right, this is different:

A South Korean soldier faces trial in a military court, accused of sexually assaulting a female U.S. soldier at Camp Casey on Dec. 19, 2nd Infantry Division and Ministry of National Defense officials confirmed this week.

The soldier’s first hearing in the South Korean military court is scheduled for Feb. 2 in Dongducheon but will be closed to the public, a defense ministry spokesman said.

The 6th Infantry Division soldier has been jailed since his arrest, the spokesman said.

I can guarantee you that if the soldier is found guilty the ROK Army will punish him much more severely than the light sentences handed out to South Korean civilians who have raped US soldiers in the past.  In my unit a few years back we had a senior KATUSA go to ROK Army jail for 2 months just for hazing a soldier.  Worst of all for him was that his time in jail did not count against his two year ROK Army commitment.  His hazing crime?  He would make new KATUSAs sing patriotic Korean songs in front of the unit. Finally one new KATUSA complained and the next thing we knew the senior KATUSA was in jail.  I can only imagine how long a sexual assault conviction would land a soldier in ROK Army jail, especially when you consider the ROK Army is really going to want to save face with their USFK allies.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out when you consider in 2003 a similar incident happened between a USFK a soldier sexually assaulting a KATUSA trainee at Camp Jackson:

A U.S. military court on Thursday sentenced an American soldier to 30 years in jail for sodomizing a South Korean soldier, the U.S. military said. Two other American soldiers suspected of involvement in the assault are under investigation.

Sgt. Leng Sok was court-martialed at Camp Casey in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on charges of aggravated assault, indecent acts, sodomy, submission of a false official statement and conspiracy.

Sok “has been found guilty in all five charges,” said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for the U.S. Eighth Army.

The victim’s family actually handed over jurisdiction of the case from Korean authorities, despite protests from anti-US groups, to the US military because of the light sentences given for sexual assaults in Korean courts.  The convicted sergeant in this case received 30 years in jail.  That’s sending a message and I expect the ROK Army will probably want to send a message as well.

Anyway as OFK points out the irony of this rape is quite evident when you consider all the righteous outrage from sectors of Korea over the US soldier who is alleged to have a raped a Korean woman a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t seen anything about this case in the Korean media yet compared to the instant headlines the US soldier made after his arrest two weeks ago. This is just the continuation of a trend of when crimes are committed against US soldiers little if any articles in the Korean media are written about it compared to instant headlines every time a US soldier commits any crime no matter how small against a Korean civilian.  The soldier doesn’t even have to commit a crime, it just has to appear he did to make headlines.  This is how the Myth of GI Crimes is cultivated in Korea.

I have posted before that the long term readiness of the ROK Army will be affected if the Korean government does not do more to professionalize the force.  I say this because in the past, completing your mandatory service in the ROK military was considered a gate you passed to become a man in Korean society.  People who did not do their national service were looked down upon.  Today though it is the complete opposite, mandatory service is something at best to be avoided.  What has changed this attitude so drastically over the course of only a decade?  First all living standards have increased where people don’t want to spend two years of their lives living in a cramped barracks getting beat down by superiors for a next to nothing pay check.  Secondly and most importantly in my opinion is that the youth being conscripted into the ROK military do not see the North Korean threat as a legitimate threat to the nation.  The progressives in the South Korean educational system have successfully indoctrinated an entire South Korean generation into the bogus belief that North Korea is just some misunderstood uncle that doesn’t mean any harm to South Korea.  Don’t believe me?  Then read this.

This announcement by the ROK military is at least one small baby step towards professionalizing the force if it comes to pass:

The military is considering hiring about 40,000 “salaried volunteer soldiers” between 2011 and 2020 to help overhaul the military conscription system, sources at the Defense Ministry said Monday.

Under the plan, those who volunteer to remain in the military for an additional year after their two-year mandatory service would be paid an annual salary of about 15 million won, they said.

The ministry initially announced that it would maintain about 20,000 salaried voluntary servicemen but is considering increasing the number to fill the possible manpower gap from the reduction in service period, the sources said.

The Defense Ministry needs these volunteers because of the national government’s plan to reduce national service from 24 months to 18 months for most conscriptees.  It is speculated the ruling party is doing this just to score political points in this year’s presidential election with Korea’s youth population, which is probably the case, but I like the possible unintended consequence of having the military recruit volunteers instead of relying on draftees.

The pay of approximately $15,000 for that extra year is actually pretty competitive with the pay of an American military E4 with 2 years of service which comes out to $20,976.  You consider the cheaper of cost of living in Korea and it is pretty much even.  Plus if living conditions and treatment of the soldiers improves this may be appealing to many youths.  However, a professional military requires budget increases, which many in the government don’t want to give:

“We are in close consultation with related government agencies about the increase in the salaried soldiers as an alternative to the cut in the service period,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity. “But the budget planning agency now opposes it, citing the whopping additional budget required.”

The Ministry of Planning and Budget estimates that about 1.2 trillion won of additional budget on top of the 621 trillion of defense spending for the Defense Reform 2020 scheme would be required only for soldiers’ payment, he said.

That is why I dislike the draftee system because the politicians can keep getting away with sending over a billion dollars to North Korea while Korean youths for two years are treated no better than a Kaseong slave labor worker.  I find it ironic that the amount of money needed to fund this voluntary service program is nearly equal to the amount of money being sent to North Korea this year.  If Korean youths really wanted to make a difference in this next election they should vote for someone who is going to legitimately work to create an all volunteer military so no one will have to be conscripted in the first place instead of the demagogues looking to score cheap political points at the expensive of national security and the welfare of their citizens.

Former ROK Army veterans who served in the Vietnam War recently won a lawsuit against the US companies responsible for manufacturing the chemical, Agent Orange, that was used to clear foliage in the jungles of Vietnam:

In the first Korean court ruling on compensation for illnesses triggered by the use of Agent Orange, a defoliant, during the Vietnam War, the Seoul High Court said yesterday that the U.S. chemical companies Dow Chemical and Monsanto must pay 6,795 Korean veterans a total of 63 billion won ($63 million).

“There is a high possibility that the plaintiffs, who were in Vietnam between 1965 and 1973, were exposed to the toxic chemical,” the court said. “We acknowledged the need for compensation for those who suffered 11 diseases that are the aftermath of exposure to Agent Orange, such as lymphatic gland cancer and larynx cancer.”

I think it is a good thing that these veterans won this lawsuit because it is pretty well documented the affects Agent Orange has had on Vietnam War veterans. A little known fact outside of Korea, is the fact that Korea had 47,682 soldiers fighting in Vietnam at the height of the war in 1968, at the US’s request and over 5,000 Korean soldiers were killed in the jungles there.

I have talked to many Korean Vietnam War veterans and every single one of them felt like they had been spurned and forgotten by the general Korean public. The US government at least should not forget about these veterans and help them get their compensation from the specified companies.

It will be interesting to see if President Roh will do anything as well to help these veterans. Remember this is the same guy that will not attend a memorial ceremony for six South Korean sailors murdered during a coordinated North Korean attack. With this in mind why would President Roh care about some old, sick Korean Vietnam War veterans?

The Korean government has declassified additional documents highlighting specifics about the ROK Army deployment to Vietnam:

Korean president Park Chung-hee in the later 1960s proposed a regional defense body with Japan and Taiwan to combat the spread of communism, newly declassified documents reveal. The dossier related to the Vietnam War made public on Friday also shatters persistent myths by showing that Korean soldiers who fought in the war were paid the same as their Thai and Filipino counterparts, and that the money did go to the soldiers and was not used by the state to boost Korea’s economic development, as some have charged.

It shouldn’t be a huge shock that President Park was trying to create a regional defense body with Japan and Taiwan at the time because it was the height of the Cold War and South Korea wasn’t nearly as strong national power as they are now. The ROK Army soldiers I have met who fought in the Vietnam War always felt unappreciated by Korea and dismissed as mercenaries for Washington. The fact that they were receiving their combat pay will probably only reenforce that stereotype, but those ROK Army soldiers that fought in Vietnam should be looked at no differently than the foreign troops that came to Korea’s aid when communist aggression threatened to take over the country. All the soldiers that served in both Korea and Vietnam are heroes and shouldn’t be dismissed or forgotten.

The ROK Army apparently wants to become more Americanized by relying on hi-tech weapon systems and volunteer forces to down size their military:

A major battle is underway in South Korea, between the government and the army. At issue is a proposed reorganization of the armed forces. The politicians, and most of the voters, believe it is inevitable that the communist government in North Korea will eventually collapse, and no longer be a threat. The reform plan, which has been in the works for years, will take fifteen years to complete. But by 2020 the army would have six corps instead of 13, twenty divisions instead of 47 and 26 percent fewer troops (500,000 instead of 680,000). The reserves would be reduced even more, from 3 million to 1.5 million. Conscription would not be eliminated, but it would be used less. The army would provide higher pay for the Special Forces (sort of like the U.S. Rangers), to encourage volunteers. Conscripts who wanted to make the army a career, would immediately receive much higher pay once they agreed to stay in, when their conscription service was over. Ultimately, an all-volunteer forces would be preferred. But right now, that would cost too much money.

I have been reporting for a while that the ROK Army cannot in the long term remain a conscripted force due to the changes in Korean society. Before, mandatory service was looked at as serving your country and as being the last gate to pass before you became a real man. Now it is at best something to be avoided. Korea’s younger generation has more important things to do like go to college, work and earn more money than what they would make in the ROK Army, talk on their cell phones, and let’s not forget play Starcraft. These are all activities mandatory services cuts into.

Here is something interesting:

The reform also includes turning the coast guard into a police organization, and stationing specially trained brigades to watch the DMZ, rather than combat divisions full of conscripts. The special DMZ brigades would contain more volunteers, and be able to cover the DMZ using fewer troops (and more robots and high-tech sensors.) The reforms also include greater use of precision missiles, rockets and bombs. One of the proposals is to organize missiles and MLRS units (firing GPS guided rockets) into a separate organization.

The ROK Army is looking at forming an all volunteer force to patrol the DMZ? This will be a tough sell to get people to volunteer for this duty. Much of the DMZ is remote and rugged terrain without much creature comforts. I hope the ROK Army plans on also greatly modernizing the military facilities along the DMZ as well.

Here is why the ROK Army thinks Americanizing their force will work:

In all, the reforms want to make the armed forces smaller and more lethal. In this respect, the reformers have been much influenced by the American experience with volunteer troops and high-tech. American combat units have been stationed in South Korea for over half a century, so South Koreans have been able to observe the changes in the American army since the draft was eliminated three decades ago. The South Koreans have also been impressed by the American performance in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. South Korean units that train with American troops have also experienced these changes up close. The better trained, and now combat experienced, U.S. soldiers are clearly better at fighting. So, the South Koreans are headed in that direction. It’s expected that many of the current generals will fight the reforms, if only because the smaller army (a 36 percent cut, to 350,000 troops) will mean fewer jobs for senior officers.

This is going to be a huge fight with the brass of the ROK Army, but currently the ROK Army generals have little influence with the current ruling government and they have little prestige with the Korean public due to past military dictatorships and current corruption scandals. The brass will lose on this issue and the ROK Army will probably be better off for it.