India South Korea Defence Industry Cooperation

India-South Korea Defence Industry Cooperation

Soon after US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin’s maiden India visit to upgrade strategic bilateral teamwork in Indo-pacific theatre, the South Korean Minister of National Defence Suh Wook also arrived in New Delhi for a three-day visit to boost bilateral military ties. During his high-level visit, the South Korean Defence Minister met his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh and discussed detailed cooperation in multiple areas including joint military systems, defence industry and deepened maritime teamwork in Indo-pacific region. Given the high-end and sophisticated nature of the South Korean defence electronic manufacturing and naval shipbuilding capabilities, Indian defence industry can actively leverage this opportunity to develop know-how capabilities in advanced digital and AI-enabled systems within the country in consonance with Indian government flagship initiative ‘Make in India’.

“Had excellent deliberations with the Republic of Korea’s Defence Minister, Mr Suh Wook, in New Delhi today. We discussed ways to strengthen and further deepen defence cooperation between India and RoK,” said Rajnath Singh in a tweet. Also, both the Indian and South Korean Ministers together launched ‘Indo-Korean Friendship Park’ in Delhi Cantonment in the memory of Indian peacekeepers during the Korean war in the early 1950s.

South Korea defence industry is a major supplier of military hardware to the Indian Armed Forces. In 2017, a major South Korean defence firm, Hanwha Defence, bagged a large order worth Rs 4,500-crore from Indian MoD to supply 100 K-9 Thunder tracked mobile artillery guns under the ‘Make in India’ route. The 155mm, 52 calibre K9 Vajra, the Indian variant of K9 Thunder, is manufactured by Indian private giant L&T with the technology of transfer from Hanwha Defence.

L&T completed the delivery of all 100 Indian-made Vajra guns to Indian Army last month, and a repeat order for additional K9 guns may have been discussed during Suh Wook’s New Delhi visit.

Apart from this, advanced naval shipbuilding technologies could be another considerable offer from Seoul for Indian industry to support various upcoming Indian naval projects including Fleet Support Ships (FSS), Landing Platform Docks (LPD) and Mine Countermeasure Vessels (MCMV). With the last Indian mine-hunter vessel INS Kozhikode decommissioned in 2019, Indian Navy is in need to acquire this critical mine-killer capability as soon as possible, and, as Earlier in September 2019, when Indian Raksha Mantri was on a five-day visit to North-East Asia including South Korea, both the countries had formulated a mechanism to strengthen Indo-Korean defence industry cooperation in R&D and production of land, air and maritime systems. The bilateral collaboration also embodies testing, QA and certification procedures. A further push for India-South Korea defence cooperation across Tri-service as well as institutions dealing with military systems was taken during Suh Wook’s New Delhi visit.

reported by various Indian media accounts, India and South Korea may also have discussed the options to purchase or lease these indispensable mine-hunter naval vessels from Korean shipbuilding industry.

Moreover, to leverage the massive Indian market, the South Korean defence industry is actively showcasing its advanced military systems at Indian defence exhibitions. For instance, during the last DefExpo show in Lucknow, A group of key South Korean defence companies including Korean Aerospace Industries, Hanwha Defence and LIG Nex1 had showcased their defence equipment and weapon solutions for Indian armed forces.