South Korea has become an important player in the defense industry, with artillery exports, tanks, superficial missiles, combatant aircraft and another military hardware potentially medium More than $ 21 billion this year.
South Korea cracked The list of the main military exporters in 2022 with a historical sale to Poland after Russia invaded Ukraine, and is projected to reach number three in next year.
One of the most popular products in South Korea is the K9 “Thunder” 155 mm self -propelled Hoitzer, which Poland was very interested in acquiring after Russia arrived in Ucrine. Other countries threatened by Russia quickly followed Poland’s leadership, while India decided that these Howwolzers could be useful against China someday.
Currently, an agreement in process with Vietnam could make it the united country to embrace the K9 as its artillery piece of battle horses. According to reports, Canada is consultation An important purchase of K9, along with another southern Korea hardware, which would mark a dramatic change of pulmonary time by Canada, Reliance American Arms King, a moment of tense relations between Ottawa and Washington.
Other popular exports of South Korea include: the air surface missile of average range of Cheongung (SAM), which has been adopted by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (EAU), and is under consideration by Iraq and Malaysia; The main battle tank of K2 “Black Panther”, which attracts the same clients who buy the K9 Obus; and the FA-50 Jet fighter.
South Korea’s arms have several advantages, including in the main cost. Sacrifice performance K9, K2 and FA-50 very close to their counterparts made in the United States at considerably lower prices.
When Poland evaluated The K2 tank found that the South Korean model could shoot faster and more accurately than any other tank in the world while it was moving. K2 weapons were so precise that it is considered a threat to low -flight enemy aircraft. The Polish army was so happy with the performance of the K2 that ordered a thousand of them.
High performance and low price of Cheongung missile make it one of the few practical defenses against mass drone attacks. Drones are normally much cheaper than missiles than the cost of firing drones is prohibitive, but Sam of South Korea changes that equation.
The South Korean military team is also highly interoperable with US and NATO systems, partly because the designers of South Korea used many existing components to build their vehicles. South Korea engineers also benefited from decades of close cooperation and joint training with US forces.
The FA-50 fighter Actions About 70 percent of its components with the US F-16, a plane that looks a lot. This facilitates the introduction of the South Korean plane into an Air Force that depends largely on the F-16.
The great weapons manufacturers of South Korea, including Hanwha Aerospace and Hyundai Rotem, have a good reputation to support their products. A reason why India advanced from the decades of dependence on Russian hardware was that Russian containers could not provide spare parts or maintenance training. South Korean companies intervened quickly to fill that void.
The Russian team is also notoriously tidal and prone to breakdowns, while the South Korean team has proven to be robust and reliable – A natural consequence of the South Koreans living below with a psychotic military dictator that could attack at any time.
South Korea is generous to resolve local co-production agreements with client nations, as in the case of India, which made an agreement to produce K9 Howwitzers under the Indian brand K9 Vajra-T. South Korean banks have further increased weapons sales by offering attractive finance packages to foreign buyers.