The modernization of the Korean military continues:
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has received an initial contract to provide engineering services related to a U.S. government Foreign Military Sale of the Patriot air and missile defense system to South Korea.
Raytheon expects significant follow-on awards to complete the system integration and to provide command and control, communications and maintenance support equipment, as well as the training of Korean operators and maintainers and technical assistance to the deployed systems.
"There is a strong continuing demand, both domestically and internationally, for the combat-proven Patriot system," said Joseph "Skip" Garrett, deputy of Patriot Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. "Our Patriot systems will provide South Korea the capability to defend itself from the full spectrum of air and missile threats. Raytheon is committed to ensuring Patriot continues to provide our U.S. warfighters and international allies with a superior, affordable and reliable air and missile defense capability to meet current and future threats." [Examiner.com]
The article did not say, but it will be interesting to see if Raytheon is selling the PATRIOT PAC-3 missiles or not. The PAC-3 is the most advanced PATRIOT missile available now and I would assume Raytheon is selling this missile to the Korean military because if the ROK military fields the PAC-3 that would possibly mean less US PATRIOT units would be needed in Korea.
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2:15 pm on March 5th, 2008 1
No, Raytheon isn’t selling the PAC-3 to the ROK. The ROK is buying second hand PAC-2s from Germany. Raytheon, as mentioned in the article, is only selling the ROKAF the equipment and services to enable it to integrate and operate the second hand PAC-2s.
According to a local military magazine, Raytheon did submit a quotation for upgrading the second-hand German launchers and associated equipment to handle PAC-3s in addition to new-build PAC-3 missiles. I don’t quite remember the actual $ figure, but I believe it was in the 100 ~ 200 million dollars range. But don’t expect the project to go ahead, because according to the magazine, the ROKAF general staff and the MND blanched when they saw the said quotation.
3:10 pm on March 5th, 2008 2
After years of watching the ROK play watch the pea under the shell game by first ordering the PAC-3s but not funding it, then re-prioritizing it, then dropping the farce altogether and negotiating first with the Japanese for used PAC-2s and then with the Germans…and then renegotiating with the Germans over the price….and then setting up a new ARMY Air Defense Command with great fanfare…and then renegotiating with the Germans over price…etc. etc. etc.
I JUST WANT TO SEE WHEN ARE THEY GOING FINALLY PUT THE FIRST PATRIOTS IN PLACE… Supposed to be 2007, then 2008, and then??????
After that comes the big question of do we need to send some of our PATRIOT batteries back to Fort Sill and let the ROK start handling some of its own missile defense — something the ROK does NOT want to do.
Stay tuned kids — watch the pea…
4:48 pm on March 5th, 2008 3
Thanks guys for clarifying. It sounds like more delay games by the ROK. If they would field their own missile defense the US could remove a whole brigade of ADA soldiers from Korea further reducing our footprint. It appears that will not be happening any time soon.
5:41 pm on March 5th, 2008 4
Korea is developing a missile defense system called the KAMD(Korea Air & Missile Defense) which will involve a locally developed ballistic missile early warning radar(probably will use Russian technology), and the above mentioned PAC-2 missiles. It is designed to counter the low tier of NK balistic missiles such as the Scud and the KN-02.
But yeah, the PAC-3 would be a better missile defense system than the PAC-2s.
Also there are rumors that the ROK, under Roh, started the KAMD not because of the NK ballistic missile threat but because it didn’t want the US offering the ROK to join the BMD that it was working on with Japan. You see the previous government figured that if the US mentioned the BMD, it could respond by saying “Hey we already have the KAMD, we don’t need it. So please do not offer it to us”
9:15 pm on March 5th, 2008 5
I thought this was all old news….
10:59 am on March 6th, 2008 6
Pssst…don’t hold your breath on the KAMD. As I said before, watch the pea…
From an article in Dec 2007:
The Defense Ministry is now developing an independent missile defense system called “Korea Air and Missile Defense” (KAMD). It will consist of a battery of PAC-3 missiles, which the ministry is to purchase after the mid-2010s, and a battery of domestically developed medium-range surface-to-air missiles (M-SAM). M-SAMs will reportedly have a shorter range than PAC-3 missiles.
(NOTE: Notice the PAC-3 procurement is in the “mid-2010s” — AFTER the USFK has ceded wartime control.)
Incoming missiles would be detected by Spy-1D radar from Aegis vessels such as the King Sejong-class destroyers, and by a ballistic missile early warning radar system (BMEWS). The Aegis vessels are not armed with interceptor missiles like the SM-3 the U.S. and Japan are jointly developing. But the country plans to purchase shorter-range interceptor missiles in the medium and long term. Military sources say the U.S. and Japan are spending huge amounts of money jointly developing SM-3 missiles, so there is very little chance that they will sell them to South Korea. “Given the small size of the Korean Peninsula, we’ll purchase shorter-range missiles, if the U.S. ever develops them, and deploy them on the Aegis vessels,” one source said.
(NOTE: The ROK has requested SM-3 missiles for its new Aegis destroyers, but the US has not approved their request as yet. The concerns are for the leakage of classified data — as was done in Japan.)
Experts therefore predict it will take until at least 2015 that South Korea will be able to build a full-fledged missile defense system. At the moment, the country cannot join the U.S. missile defense system, but if KAMD is built, it will be linked to the U.S. system in one way or another. If the KAMD system is to function properly, South Korea will have to rely on the U.S.’ missile early warning system, including an early warning satellite that can detect North Korea’s missile launches quickly, and on the so-called battle management command, control, communication, computer and intelligence (BM/C4I) system.
10:34 am on April 4th, 2008 7
Incoming USFK Commander: More Missile Defense…
In written comments to questions from members of the Senate Armed Services Committee concerning his nomination to replace Gen. B.B. Bell, current director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon Gen. Walter Sharp lobbied for improved missile defense in Sout…
6:37 am on June 4th, 2008 8
[...] upgraded Korea’s arms buying status and thus the reason you see Korea looking at buying both PATRIOT missiles and Apache helicopters from the US. If the Korean government buys this equipment that would mean [...]
10:23 am on September 22nd, 2008 9
[...] Korean government along with this purchase of the second hand PATRIOTs is also buying services from the Raytheon Corporation to provide maintenance and integration expertise for these new missiles. However, it is important [...]