By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) plans to reduce the production of the country's indigenous main battle tanks due to budgetary constraints brought on by the global financial crisis, officials said Wednesday.
At a National Assembly session earlier this week, the agency made public a plan to downscale the budget by 1.8 trillion won to 3.9 trillion won for the production of 400 K2 Black Panther amphibious tanks, built by the state-run Agency for Defense Development and Hyundai Rotem, between 2009 and 2017.
DAPA originally planned to produce about 600 K2 tanks, considered a peer of world-class battle tanks, such as the U.S. M1A2 SEP and the French Leclerc tanks.
The agency proposed 14.4 billion won for the first phase manufacture of 100 tanks between 2011 and 2012, a defense ministry official said.
Reports said the agency was considering slashing funds for building some other up-to-date weapons systems, such as the K-11 multifunctional rifle, because of the budgetary issue.
Critics say such moves to scale back military expenditure for arms acquisition would hamper the nation's military modernization program, aimed at reducing troop strength but acquiring high-tech weapons systems.
The K2, whose per-unit cost reaches 8.3 billion won, is the core of the Army's modernization push to build slimmer but more agile and powerful armed forces.
The tank can reach speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour on surface roads and 50 kilometers per hour off-road with gun stabilization and can cross rivers as deep as 4.1 meters using a snorkel, a considerable improvement over the K1 and K1A1, with the ability to fire as soon as it resurfaces.
The main armament of the tank includes a 12.7mm K-6 heavy machine gun, a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, and an indigenous 120mm/55-caliber smoothbore gun with better muzzle velocity than the 120mm/44-caliber gun, equipping a K1A1.
The tank is to be operational with the Army by 2010.
South Korea signed a contract regarding the transfer of tank development technology with Turkey earlier this year.
The deal, valued at $400 million, is the nation's second largest arms export after a $1-billion licensing deal over the K-9 self-propelled howitzer in 2001, again with Turkey.
Under the deal, South Korea will help Turkey develop a semi-indigenous main battle tank by 2015 through the transfer of its technology, related to the design and development of the K1A1 and XK2 tanks, according to DAPA and Rotem officials.
South Korea will transfer key technologies regarding engine, gunnery and snorkeling systems to Turkey, which initially wants to build about 250 advanced main battle tanks, they said. Seoul will provide more than 60 percent of the technology required to build the Turkish tanks.