South Korean R & D and Defence Production

Columnist Col (Retd) EAS BOKHARI discusses the South Korean capabilities in Research & Development as well as Defence Production

This short presentation deals with the R&D (Research and Development) activities of ROK - and the defence production of the country in some detail. The key word in all these activities is 'self-reliance'. Here is the official version of the prevailing situation. '........... In response to the change of strategic environments surrounding the Korean Peninsula including the 1969 declaration of withdrawal of the US Forces from Korea and the collapse of the South Vietnam in the early 1970s, the Republic of Korea initiated a profound policy to develop the defence industry... In the 1980s most projects for research and development were government-driven (in the Public Sector - parenthesis mine), and focused on the improvement of conventional weapons, while R&D on developing some high-tech, precision weapons resulted in the accumulation of certain development capabilities.... In the 1990s industry-driven (we shall talk more about these later) R&D projects have been conducted to develop weapon systems ... Government's efforts have been directed to the development of core technologies and key parts for high-tech precision weapons....'

What it really means is that more facilities will be provided to the private sector in the field of defence production - and even licenced production is to be encouraged.

For the purpose of carrying out effective research and development ROK established the Agency for Defence Development in 1970. 'It promoted the domestic production of basic weapons with Technical Data Packages (TDP) provided by the US as military assistance.'

With these arrangements ROK was in a position to domestically produce basic weapons like artillery and other variety of guns. Defence R&D however was not placed in a real high gear for economic constraints.

Having established a base - the R&D activities were galvanized in the 1990s - as indicated earlier on - when the cooperation of academia, private sector (industry) and research institutes started working in unison. And as is the custom and drill in the developed countries, in ROK - Academia conducts basic research on fundamental technologies - while government-funded institutes carry out applied research and development of core technologies. The defence industry based on the research outcomes implements commercialization of core technologies - and key items through improvement in production technology - and industry led research and development centered on basic weapons.

Some of the more specialized basic research centres which are operating presently in ROK are:

* Automatic Control    Seoul National University

* Electronic Waves      Pohang University of Science & Technology.

* Electronic Optics      Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

* Marine Sonics            Seoul National University, and

* System Concept          Advanced Institute of Military Science and Technology.

Ranging from 9 to 13 projects are being processed in the above centres of excellence - the lowest number being nine in Electronic engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Actually it is the operation of these specialized centres which lays the foundations of the basic technologies in the defence science. I remember we used to have a seminar yearly at POFs Wah on defence, science and technology - but that seems to have been stopped now. I still maintain that it was a very good vehicle of defence S&T flow of ideas and perceptions and should continue.

Quality people should be inducted there with a view to expanding the opportunities to participate in defence research and national science and technology development by increasing the spin off effects of technologies developed through the expansion of exchanges among industry, academic and research institutes. The Korean ADD (The Agency for Defence Development) is the main spearhead and coordinator of all defence-related R&D which concentrates on the core technologies required by the military.

'.... ADD has contributed to the development of defence, science and technology including the domestic production of most of our basic weapons and to the development of all related fields including the inauguration of the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses.'

However some of the more practical - and mundane aspects have also been transferred to the services and these include:

* Testing and evaluation of the tech- nologies developed by the industry and

* Provision of certain technical assis- tance.

The status of major R & D Projects in 1997 was as below:

By and large the Korean defence research is not as lavish as it is in some developed countries and the total investment on it for the year 1997 was only 3.12 per cent of the defence budget. I am told that some dual use technology projects have been started in 1998 under the Five Year Science and Technology Renovation Plan led by the Ministry of Science and Technology. This project will serve as a catalyst for inter-ministry exchanges on the development of science and technology. The Korean industry too has been expanding investment for an enhanced R & D capability.

The performance of the big five industries who also work on defence and defence hardware export will be presented in the concluding presentation that follows.

This is a rather difficult presentation as many countries are extremely secretive about their defence expenditures and arms production - and not withstanding the end of the cold war and sizeable military cuts (some voluntary) in some countries the military budgets and arms production worldwide has not been surgically reduced though it is slowly heading towards such a process. Some countries out of sheer threat perception cannot afford to be less potent militarily. The South Korean scenario apparently fits into this predicament as has been pointed out by me in a previous presentation.

It is very difficult to get data on South Korea for obvious reasons and it has been tried here to present whatever authentic figures are available - mostly upto the year 1995-1996. South Korea is not even regularly filing returns of major weapons to the UN Register of Weapons which makes the researcher's job still more awkward.

Let us first see as to what is the present worldwide trend in this regard. A very brief resume of the situation is as below which has been culled from Sipri Year Book -1998.

World military expenditure is still declining - but the rate of decline is slowing down ... The world totals indicate that the rate of decline was less than 1 per cent in real terms in 1997, compared to an average annual reduction of 2.5 per cent during the five year period 1993-97 ... The sharpest cut in global military expenditure took place in 1992 - when Russia cut its arms procurement by two thirds as part of budget reduction strategy. The US military expenditure cut over that period is nearly 31 per cent.

About East Asia - SIPRI's perception is different and here it is: 'Developments in 1997 were in many ways illustrative of the mutual interaction of economic factors and military activities. The fact that the East Asia region had the most rapid growth in military expenditure during the past decade was to a great extent the result of its rapid economic growth ... The financial crisis in 1997 forced several countries in the region to cut their military expenditure and cancel or postpone major weapon contracts....'

And then the money market can never be stable - nor the financial positions. The financial crisis in the second half of 1997 ravaged several East Asian countries and it had an impact on military budgets and arms production and even arms transfers. In fact East Asia is one of the biggest world arms import market.

The countries most seriously affected by the financial crisis were Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and to some extent Philippines - and there may have been side effects on the neighbouring countries too including the economic giant Japan.

'Military expenditure in the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations.) countries increased by an aggregate of 52 per cent in real terms over the nine year period 1988-96. The growth in South Korea military expenditure has been roughly the same. 'It is estimated that on import side - with 20 to 30 per cent procurement share, the size of the combined arms markets of ASEAN countries, South Korea and Taiwan can be estimated at 6-9 US billion dollars.

Now let us take a stock of the production side of South Korean defence production in some detail. The main producers of equipment - (and I have not been able to get the details itemwise) are the three South Korean Groups i.e. the Samsung, Daewoo (the same outfit which has constructed out M-2 Motorway) and Hyundai - and their subsidiaries. In fact the Sipri Year Book 1998 has listed five Korean companies amongst the top 100 companies - and the above in their list of arms producers. (The two South Korean Companies are the subsidiaries of the main company although their specialisation of equipment fabrication is slightly different.) The gradation list of Sipri is as below:

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Finally by and large - and notwithstanding financial crisis South Korea has done well in the defence production. It appears that the government R&D expenditure in 1995 (figures after that time are not available) has been only 3.6 per cent of the net national R&D expenditure.

It is the private sector which is really the backbone of the South Korean defence production. And for all its vicissitudes this sector is fast burgeoning.