With the European list, South Korea is already a military power?

The rapid growth of Korean weapons exports not only has obvious opportunities for opportunities, but South Korean military enterprises also seriously lack advanced core technologies with independent intellectual property rights.

Few people thought that when European countries began to purchase a large number of advanced weapons and equipment from Asian countries, it was actually the lead in South Korea.

Poland, the strongest army of NATO European member states, announced the signing of military flames with South Korea, including nearly a thousand main battle tanks and hundreds of self -propelled artillery, which has made the world's eyes. The new generation of Aegis destroyers launching the water and completing the stealth fighter test flight after the United States and China and Russia, which made South Korean military workers seem to be the limelight for a while.

So, why does South Korean military work rise? In other words, does South Korean military workers really rise?

Signing tens of billions of dollars contracts

The Polish Department of Defense announced at the end of last month that it will sign huge military purchase orders with South Korea, including 980 K2 main battle tanks, 48 ​​FA-50 light fighters, and 648 K9 self-propelled howites. The purchase has been approved by Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Boshchak. Although the specific amount has not been disclosed, the source said that it will be more than $ 14 billion.

Because the European arms market has been dominated by local industrial power in the United States and France in recent years, this transaction not only shocked many European countries, but also made South Korea ecstatic and even a little flattered. Lieutenant General Quan Renxuan, a retired Army in South Korea, said that this was "the largest order in Korean history." South Korea's public opinion believes that this symbolizes the recognition of South Korean manufacturing has reached a new height and will bring the prospects for lighting in Korean companies that try to stand in Europe.

This is not the only harvest of South Korean military industrial enterprises in July. In the field of maritime equipment, the new generation of Aegis destroyers in South Korea held a launching ceremony on July 28. President Yin Xiyue and his wife attended him.

The water launching ceremony was held.

According to the South Korean Defense Department, the "Zhengzu King" ship has a length of 170 meters, 21 meters wide, and a standard displacement of 8,200 tons. It is planned to be delivered to the South Korean Navy at the end of 2024. The Korean media said that it is expected to ask the "Asian first destroyer".

Although the tonnage and volume of "Zhengzu" are larger than the previous generation ships, the stealth performance has been strengthened. The ship is equipped with a new Aegis missile defense system and plans to equip remote air defense missiles, which improves the ability to detect, track and intercept the ballistic missile. ability.

In the field of aviation, the Korean KF-21 "Falcon" stealth fighter successfully completed its first flight on July 19. Korean media are extremely excited. Since the eighth country that can develop supersonic fighters in the world, it is also the fourth "aviation power" that can develop stealth fighters after the United States and China.

In fact, the KF-21 fighters only tried to fly half an hour on the day, and did not even recover the landing rack, and the speed did not break through the speed of sound, but South Korea officials still called a new leap in Korean aviation technology and high-tech troops.

Korean media reports that KF-21 will pass 2,200 test flights to evaluate various performances in the next four years to verify combat capabilities. If it is successfully passed through the test flight and verification phase, the model will be invested in mass production from 2026, and will be deployed 120 in 2032 to replace the old US-made F-4 and F-5 fighters.

Military industry enterprises have accumulated for many years

Before achieving the above -mentioned remarkable achievements, South Korean military enterprises have been in charge for many years. According to the "Defense Industry Characteristics and Export Strategy" released by South Korea in July, from 2017 to 2021, South Korean weapons exports increased by 176.8%, and the share of the global weapon export market increased from 1%in 2012 to 2.8%. For the first time Ranking among the top ten in the world, ranking eighth.

There is no casual success in the world, especially in the field of military industry that integrates politics, economic and technological elements. How can South Korea grow from a pure weapon importing country to a country that can share a large cup from the international arms market?

The most important point is that South Korea is not lacking in the ambition of becoming a military power, and has formulated long -term planning for the development of the military manufacturing industry. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the foundation of South Korea was weak, and the military industry was basically zero, almost relying on the United States. After the Park Jung -hee government came to power, he formulated a national economy with imported alternative strategies, began to build arsenal factories, and provided policy, legal and financial support for the development of military industrial enterprises through the establishment of the National Defense Development Bureau, promulgating the Military Law, and adding "defense tax".

At first, South Korea could only produce and repair simple weapons such as rifles and patrol boats authorized by the United States. However, with the emergence of the "Hanjiang Miracle", South Korea has formed a relatively complete military system in the 1980s. It can assemble or produce large equipment such as artillery, tanks, warships, helicopters, etc., and solves the problem of "from nothing". Essence

The "Hanjiang Miracle" created by the South Korean economy is the basis of the rapid development of the military industry. Picture source: newspim

The challenge of "from you to excellent" in the next stage is even more difficult: First of all, the United States allows South Korea to have a certain military industry, but it is not happy to see it threatened its advanced status; secondly, with the new military revolution in the 1990s, The cost of military industry upgrades and high -tech equipment research and development has increased significantly.

In this regard, in addition to further integrating the national defense science and technology research and development system, South Korea focuses on the scale advantages of the four major consortia of Samsung, Hyundai, LG and SK, and continuously uses the political space of the left and right sources. R & D to realize the gradual accumulation of technology and experience, and use the sales channels of cooperative targets to broaden the market. On the one hand, while adhering to the Korean -American alliance relations, South Korea focuses on maintaining friendly cooperation with the surrounding countries, and absorbing advanced technologies from multiple parties. For example, South Korea used the timing of Russia's independence at the beginning of independence, leaving Russia forced Russia to be agreed with weapons and equipment such as T-80U main battle tanks. The T-80U was the most advanced tank equipped by the Soviet Union. For South Korea, which was very weak in the production tank threshold, transmission and suspension system technology, it was difficult to estimate.

On the other hand, South Korea gives full play to its own system design and integration advantages, and widely adopts joint research and development forms to obtain advanced technology or components of other countries, which not only reduces R & D costs and risks, but also facilitates the opening of sales channels. For example, South Korea's "Sun Yuanyi" conventional submarine chasing the world's advanced level basically copied the German 214 submarine; after South Korea purchased the F-16 fighter production line from the United States, 78%of the parts were localized, and later T-50 was given to T-50 later The research and development and exports of senior trainer have accumulated experience.

Still need to consolidate the foundation of scientific research

Thanks to step by step, South Korea's weapon exports in 2021 exceeded $ 7 billion, a record high. After winning Poland's tens of billions of dollars in military purchase, South Korea's ranking on the weapon export list will go further. However, if it is considered that South Korea is already a first -class military industry, it will be too early.

First, the rapid growth of Korean weapons exports not only has obvious opportunities, but also closely related to its sales method. Poland and South Korea signed a military fire order, in fact, Poland is more of Polish urgently filling the weapon library.

The most eye -catching in the Bodo -Korea transaction is nearly a thousand K2 main battle tanks. According to Russian media news, Poland has helped more than 200 main battle T-72 tanks and dozens of infantry chariots to Ukraine. The country's weapon library urgently needs to be supplemented. But looking around, Poland's choice is very limited -on July 15th, Poland just announced that it has purchased 250 most advanced versions of M1A2 SEP3 main battle tank from the United States, and agreed to start delivery in early 2023. This speed is no longer slow, but Poland announced on July 18 that 116 second -hand M1A2 main battle tanks that have been sealed by the US military have been sealed. At the same time, the production line of contemporary main battle tanks in Germany and France has been closed for many years. Other countries other than China and Russia have basically do not have the ability to produce advanced main battle tanks. Therefore, the K2 main battle tank that directly adopts many German core technologies Only the vision of Poland.

Although the performance of the K2 main battle tank is enough to jump into the world from paper, in the key system and components, except for the suspension system, the firepower system, power system, and transmission system are directly imported from Germany. Essence Poland has increased confidence in K2 out of confidence in German products. At the same time, since the German tank technology has long catered to NATO standards, K2 can universally use NATO standard weapons and ammunition, which greatly reduces Poland's logistics maintenance costs.

K2 main battle tank. Photo source: DefenceView

When South Korea is fighting for orders, it often promises to transfer technology patents and production lines. This cooperation with Poland has sacrificed this trick. In addition, although the weapons and equipment exported to South Korea generally use European and American price technology and components, they always tend to make a profit -making way. Take the 648 K9 self -propelled howitzer in the order, this most popular Korean weapon overseas has adopted the technology of the three countries and Germany, but its price is much lower than the similar products of other military powers.

Second, South Korean military enterprises seriously lack advanced core technologies with independent intellectual property rights. This is also the most fatal disadvantage of its first -class military industry. Although the advanced equipment in South Korea is continuously launched, as long as it is cut, it is often "Korean assembly, manufacturing of all nations." Moreover, some of the most advanced technologies, even if South Korea claims, the United States refuses to provide it.

For example, although the successful test flight of the KF-21 "Falcon" stealth fighter is dazzling, the fans of various countries have the same feeling-it is too similar to the US F-22 stealth fighter. In fact, as long as it is not from the end of the machine, the KF-21 is almost a reduced version of the F-22. And why is the tail different? Because the United States only agrees to provide a F414 engine that provides General Electric, this is the engine that has only been used for the F-18E/F fighter for many years, which is far worse than the power system of the US-made F-35 stealth fighter.

In this case, although the KF-21 is known as the fourth-generation aircraft compared with the top fighters of China, the United States and Russia, the name is actually not true. One of the standard of the fourth generation machine is the supersonic cruise, but the KF-21 cannot be satisfied at all. Its push ratio is not only inferior to the real four-generation machine, but even the three generations such as F-18E/F cannot be comparable. In addition, because the United States refuses to provide the most advanced accessible lane (DSI) airway technology, South Korea has to use the back generation of the Garyt air intakes, which greatly reduces the stealth of the fighter. Although the invisibility of KF-21 is significantly better than the KF-16 and KF-15 fighters in active Korean Army, it is bound to be inferior to the four-generation aircraft such as F-35 and China F-20.

Advanced and expensive research facilities such as large wind caves are still lacking in South Korea.Picture source: GJ is also well understood. If the United States provides the most advanced technology to South Korea, who will the F-35 fighter sell it to?There are countless situations between South Korea and the United States, and South Korea's response is to buy more F-35 to hold the American thighs in exchange for US security and technical assistance.But the problem is that when the Korean wallet was finally satisfied with the United States, the updated technology came out again.

In the final analysis, the reason why South Korea is subject to the United States everywhere is still a serious lack of basic research and independent research and development capabilities.Just like South Korea can design and assemble the KF-21 fighter, it does not design and manufacture the most advanced engine-this requires advanced large-scale wind caves as a premise, which is the standard for real military power.

Produced deep -sea district studio

Written Ai Zhou

Editor Shen Haimo

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