By Lee Tae-hoon

The Air Force plans to improve key software for its Patriot missile system, a ground-based missile and air-defense platform, without outsourcing from the U.S. government, saving more than $10 million.

Lt. Col. Lim Jae-woon, an official of the air-defense bureau of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), said that the U.S. government offered in September to install advanced software that operates Korea’s Master Control and Report Center (MCRC) through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.

“The U.S. proposed that it would upgrade the software at 15 billion won ($13.4 million) through the FMS, but we declined,” Lim said. “Instead, the Air Force Information Operations Center will lead the software development with a budget of 500 million won, while receiving 1.6 billion-won worth of technology transfer.”

The DAPA official said the Air Force has accumulated sufficient technology in relevant areas to upgrade MCRC software without a third party and his agency estimates that the Air Force will save roughly 12.9 billion won.

The MCRC at Osan Air Base, south of Seoul, monitors activities of North Korean aircraft and ballistic missiles and operates guided weapons to intercept them, including the Patriot Advanced Capability 2 system and Hawk missiles.

Lim said the software upgrade will significantly improve the MCRC’s capabilities to communicate and give instructions to lower air-defense units that operate the Integrated Command and Control (ICC) system via high speed Link 16 datalinks, a military tactical data exchange network.

Lim added this will also prevent a potential leak of Korea’s own technology and reduce the estimated duration of the revamping by about nine months.

The move came as Korea seeks to develop its own version of advanced Patriot missiles to counter North Korean ballistic missiles.

Seoul plans to outline the ambitious development plan early next year.

In 2007, the military purchased 48 secondhand PAC-2 systems from Germany but they are optimized primarily for engagements against aircraft with limited capability to deter missiles.

The PAC-2 missile detonates its explosive fragmentation warhead as it approaches near the target, knocking it off course with its blast fragmentation.

Lim said Korea will be able to upgrade the existing Patriot equipment to a PAC-3 Configuration 3 system capable of launching PAC-3 hit-to-kill missiles for around 200 billion won.