A key part from Germany for Korea's new main battle tank has turned out to be defective, with the military procurement agency failing to conduct a thorough and fair performance test over the course of its introduction, a state auditor said Thursday.
Announcing the results of its one-month audit into the engine and transmission, known as the "power pack," imported from Germany for South Korea's new battle tank K-2 "Black Panther," the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) also asked agencies concerned to reconsider their decision to use the German part and called for punishment of officials behind the faulty process.
As the country's next-generation main battle tank to replace the aging K-1 and the U.S.-built M48 tanks, the armored vehicle was first unveiled in 2006 after a decade of research and development for home-grown state-of-the-art technologies. The project cost more than 2 trillion won (US$1.84 billion), including 128 billion won to create a domestic power pack.
But a series of technical problems were detected in the local part in 2009 and hindered the original plan of starting the mass production of the K2 tank in 2011.
After several rounds of delay in its deployment, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in April that it will import the key part from Germany for the first 100 units and deploy them in March 2014, citing issues regarding the local part's reliability and durability.
In protest against the DAPA's decision, a group of people involved in the project asked for an inspection into the case.
According to the audit results announced on Thursday, several faults were detected in the imported part, including the failure to start and stop a vehicle, oil leakage and excessive emission of exhaust, among others, in addition to its failure to meet the required fuel consumption standard.
The procurement agency also missed several tests on the German part, while falsely writing in its official document that the part has a track record of being adopted for mass production, according to the BAI.
Contrary to its lax tests, the agency exaggerated the flaws detected during its test on the local power pack and ignored experts' opinion in favor of the domestic model, the BAI said.
"We've asked the agencies concerned, including the DAPA, to come up with measures to reconsider the decision to use the German power pack after comprehensively reviewing details of candidate products including their capabilities and prices," said a BAI official in charge of the audit.
"Disciplinary measures for three people responsible for masterminding the unfair process should be taken," he said, without elaborating further.
Modeled after the German-developed MTU-890, the K2 power pack is made up of a 1,500-horsepower diesel engine and transmission. Doosan Infracore and S&T Dynamics are the two main developers of the homegrown power pack and there are more than 1,000 subcontractors in Korea.
The new tank features an auto-loaded 120mm cannon, reaches speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour, and can cross rivers as deep as 4.1 meters using a snorkel, according to the DAPA. (Yonhap)
Announcing the results of its one-month audit into the engine and transmission, known as the "power pack," imported from Germany for South Korea's new battle tank K-2 "Black Panther," the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) also asked agencies concerned to reconsider their decision to use the German part and called for punishment of officials behind the faulty process.
As the country's next-generation main battle tank to replace the aging K-1 and the U.S.-built M48 tanks, the armored vehicle was first unveiled in 2006 after a decade of research and development for home-grown state-of-the-art technologies. The project cost more than 2 trillion won (US$1.84 billion), including 128 billion won to create a domestic power pack.
But a series of technical problems were detected in the local part in 2009 and hindered the original plan of starting the mass production of the K2 tank in 2011.
After several rounds of delay in its deployment, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in April that it will import the key part from Germany for the first 100 units and deploy them in March 2014, citing issues regarding the local part's reliability and durability.
In protest against the DAPA's decision, a group of people involved in the project asked for an inspection into the case.
According to the audit results announced on Thursday, several faults were detected in the imported part, including the failure to start and stop a vehicle, oil leakage and excessive emission of exhaust, among others, in addition to its failure to meet the required fuel consumption standard.
The procurement agency also missed several tests on the German part, while falsely writing in its official document that the part has a track record of being adopted for mass production, according to the BAI.
Contrary to its lax tests, the agency exaggerated the flaws detected during its test on the local power pack and ignored experts' opinion in favor of the domestic model, the BAI said.
"We've asked the agencies concerned, including the DAPA, to come up with measures to reconsider the decision to use the German power pack after comprehensively reviewing details of candidate products including their capabilities and prices," said a BAI official in charge of the audit.
"Disciplinary measures for three people responsible for masterminding the unfair process should be taken," he said, without elaborating further.
Modeled after the German-developed MTU-890, the K2 power pack is made up of a 1,500-horsepower diesel engine and transmission. Doosan Infracore and S&T Dynamics are the two main developers of the homegrown power pack and there are more than 1,000 subcontractors in Korea.
The new tank features an auto-loaded 120mm cannon, reaches speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour, and can cross rivers as deep as 4.1 meters using a snorkel, according to the DAPA. (Yonhap)
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