By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea has cut its indigenous fighter and attack helicopter development efforts, originally scheduled for next year, as part of general defense-spending reductions.
The Ministry of National Defense said Monday that it would submit a proposal for a 3.8-percent increase in next year's defense budget to the National Assembly later this week.
The ministry originally asked to spend about 30.8 trillion won ($25 billion) in 2010, up 7.9 percent from this year's 28.5 trillion won, but the presidential office and budget authorities responded with proposals for a 3.5- to 3.8-percent increase.
The readjustment to 29.6 trillion won marks the smallest increase in defense expenditure since 1999, ministry officials said.
"Economic difficulties have put pressure on the government budget across the board," Vice Defense Minister Chang Soo-man, who spearheaded efforts to streamline the budget spending plans, said in a briefing.
He added that there is still a possibility that the proposal may be adjusted further during National Assembly deliberations in the next few months.
The South Korean military has long sought to deploy indigenous combat aircraft and attack helicopters.
The KF-X fighter development program aims to create an indigenous aircraft, with the help of foreign manufacturers, to replace older F-4s and F-5s after 2010.
After a six-month feasibility study on the KF-X project, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration wanted to start exploratory development of the aircraft next year.
The agency also hoped that the Korea Attack Helicopter (KAH) plan would begin next year.
The KAH program calls for developing and producing about 270 homemade attack helicopters to replace the Army's aging fleet of Bell AH-1Ss and Hughes 500s after 2018.
Other arms improvement programs cut from the budget proposal include the acquisition of mine-sweeping helicopters, development of military satellite communications systems and procurement of next-generation electronic warfare systems, the ministry said.
Among the new programs are the inauguration of a cyber warfare command, deployment of division-level unmanned aerial vehicles, acquisition of minelayers and 120-millimeter self-propelled trench mortars, development of short-range ship-to-ground guided missiles, procurement of wheeled-armored vehicles and production of Korea Utility Helicopters, it said.
Spending on research and development in weapons systems, including the transformation of the T-50 supersonic trainer jet into the FA-50 light attack aircraft, will account for 6.1 percent, or 1.7 trillion won, of the total budget, according to the ministry. The comparable figure stood at 5.6 percent this year.