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South Korea Military Production
The Defense Industry Bureau of the Ministry of National
Defense was the government agency responsible for managing the
quantity and quality of domestically produced weapons and
equipment. In 1990 South Korean industries provided about 70
percent of the weapons, ammunition, communications and other
types of equipment, vehicles, clothing, and other supplies needed
by the military.
Weapons production for the army began in 1971 when the
Ministry of National Defense constructed a plant to assemble
United States-designed Colt M-16 rifles. The memorandum of
agreement between the United States and the Republic of Korea
authorized production of enough rifles to supply South Korean
army units. However, the agreement prohibited the production of
additional M-16s without the permission of Colt Industries and
the United States government. In the mid-1970s, South Korea
signed agreements to begin licensed production of many types of
United States-designed weapons, including grenades, mortars,
mines, and recoilless rifles, with the same stipulations as those
for the M-16 rifle. South Korea also began to manufacture
ammunition for the weapons it produced for the army.
By 1990 South Korean companies had army contracts to produce
tanks, self-propelled and towed field guns, two types of armored
vehicles, and two types of helicopters. A division of Hyundai
produced the 88 Tank (formerly called the K-1 tank) at Ch'angwon.
The K-1 was the result of a joint United States-South Korean
design. The 88 Tank's 105mm gun was an improved version of the
same caliber gun that was standard on South Korea's M-48A5 tanks.
Although a few components of the tanks' fire control and
transmission systems were imported, Hyundai and South Korean
subcontractors manufactured most of the systems. One of the
Samsung Group's businesses produced 155mm M-109 self-propelled
howitzers. KIA Machine Tool was the manufacturer for the KH-178
105mm and the KH-179 155mm towed field guns. The KH-178 and KH179 guns were derived from United States-designed artillery but
were considered indigenously designed. Daewoo Industries and Asia
Motors had a coproduction agreement for an Italian-designed
wheeled, armored personnel vehicle. Bell Helicopters Textron of
the United States and Samsung coproduced UH-1 helicopters.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, also of the United States, had a
contract with Daewoo to coproduce H-76 helicopters.
In December 1989, the Ministry of National Defense selected
the McDonnell Douglas FA-18 to be the second United Statesdesigned fighter aircraft to be coproduced in South Korea.
Samsung's aerospace division was awarded a contract to
manufacture the airframe and engine; Lucky-Goldstar became the
subcontractor for the aircraft's avionics. McDonnell Douglas
agreed to deliver twelve FA-18s to the South Korean air force in
1993 and to assist Samsung with the later assembly of 108
aircraft in South Korea. As of 1990, the entire FA-18 program was
under review because of increased costs. Korean Air used its
depot maintenance facilities at Kimhae to overhaul most types of
aircraft in service with the South Korean air force.
Additionally, the United States Air Force contracted with Korean
Air for the maintenance of its F-4, F-15, A-10, and C-130
aircraft stationed in South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines.
In 1990 South Korean shipbuilders were building two
indigenously designed naval vessels, and they had coproduction
agreements with United States, Italian, and German companies for
several other types of ships. Four shipbuilders--Hyundai, Daewoo,
Korea Tacoma, and Korean Shipbuilding and Engineering--
constructed South Korean-designed Ulsan-class frigates and
Tonghae-class corvettes for the navy. During the 1980s, Korea
Tacoma, a South Korean-owned subsidiary of the United States
Tacoma Boatbuilding Company, produced one class of patrol gunboat
and one class of landing ship for the navy. The Kirogi-class
patrol boat was a larger model of the Tacoma-designed Schoolboyclass patrol boat manufactured in South Korea during the 1970s.
The Kirogi-class patrol boat, a 170-ton vessel, required a
thirty-one-person crew and was equipped with five guns: one 40mm
single-barreled Bofors on the bow, two 30mm twin-barreled Emerson
Electrics in the stern, and two 20mm Oerlikon twin-barreled guns
behind the bridge. The Kirogi-class patrol boat, with a range of
700 kilometers and a maximum speed of 38 knots, was well suited
for its inshore patrol mission.
The Mulgae-class landing ship, another naval vessel designed
and produced in the United States by Tacoma Boatbuilding Company,
was ordered by the navy to augment a small amphibious fleet that
comprised several models of obsolescent transport craft produced
in the United States during World War II and transferred to the
South Korean navy in the 1960s and 1970s. The Mulgae-class
landing ship was designed to carry an infantry company with its
weapons, mechanized and wheeled vehicles, and other supplies. It
had a range of 560 kilometers and a maximum speed of 13 knots. In
1986 South Korea's Kangnam Shipbuilding Corporation began
construction of the Swallow/Chebi class minehunter, which was
based on the Italian-designed Lerici-class. At that time, the
South Korean navy had only eight United States-produced Kunsanclass minesweepers in service with the three fleets. The Swallowclass minehunter had new types of sonar and mine countermeasure
equipment that was expected to improve the navy's capability to
locate and to eliminate minefields in international shipping
lanes during wartime.
In the late 1980s, production of submarines designed by the
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was initiated. Three
150-ton submarines designed by the Howaldswerke Shipbuilding
Corporation were in service with the navy in 1990. Howaldswerke
also had plans to provide technical assistance for the
construction of three Type 209 submarines, about 1,400 tons each.
South Korean military planners were interested in using
submarines to protect critical shipping lanes from North Korean
submarines in wartime.
Data as of June 1990
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