Subject Korea and Australia hold defense industry cooperation joint committee meeting

South Korea‘s Defense Acqui­si­tion Pro­gram Admin­is­tra­tion, DAPA, and the Aus­tralian del­e­gates held the 8th ROK-Aus­tralia Defense Indus­try Coop­er­a­tion Joint Com­mit­tee meet­ing to dis­cuss ways to improve the defense indus­try coop­er­a­tion between the two coun­tries includ­ing the issues con­cern­ing the export of South Kore­an-built K‑9 self-pro­pelled mis­siles to the oth­er coun­try. The Aus­tri­an del­e­ga­tion vis­it­ed Seoul on a four-day tour since April 23. 

Kim Che­ol-soo, direc­tor of the Defense Pro­mo­tion Bureau under the DAPA, and his Aus­tralian coun­ter­part Mark Reynolds, head of the Trade and Indus­try Group, the Aus­tralian Defense Materiel Orga­ni­za­tion (DMO), dis­cussed the issue on export­ing South Kore­an-built K‑9 mis­siles to Aus­tralia at the joint com­mit­tee meeting. 

The two exec­u­tives also dis­cussed the two coun­tries’ bilat­er­al mil­i­tary coop­er­a­tion con­cern­ing defense indus­try field includ­ing the ways for South Kore­an defense indus­tries to enter an Aus­tralian Armed Forces mod­ern­iza­tion project. 

The K‑9 Thun­der self-pro­pelled artillery of the ROK Armed Forces was cho­sen as the pre­ferred weapon in June 2010 by the Aus­tralian Army as one of the con­tenders for Land 17 self-pro­pelled gun replace­ment, a part of the artillery mod­ern­iza­tion project of the Aus­tralian Armed Forces. 

How­ev­er, this project has been delayed because the country’s bud­get for the project was ear­marked by pri­or­i­ty for the restora­tion of 2011 Queens­land floods. 

The K‑9’s have been deployed along the front line includ­ing the five West Sea islands to be used as a major weapon to hit any mis­sile from North Korea on its ini­tial stages. The excel­lence of this artillery has been proven by its export to Turkey. 

Fur­ther­more, it has been posi­tioned as South Kore­an “mas­ter­piece” weapon to the extent that it is expect­ed to be export­ed to Malaysia. 

Source:
Min­istry of Nation­al Defense[MND], Repub­lic of Korea