Enforcement of the Defense Industry Development Support Act... Priority Application of Domestic Components in Weapon Systems

Unmanned equipment is being exhibited at the 'Korea Defense Industry Exhibition' held on the 18th at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.
Goyang=Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced on the 4th that the "Defense Industry Development and Support Act" (hereinafter referred to as the Defense Industry Development Act), which includes provisions to prioritize the application of parts developed by domestic defense companies to weapon systems and support exports, will be enforced.

This law establishes provisions to prioritize the application of domestically developed or completed parts by domestic companies in weapon system research and development and power operation projects. It also provides a basis for lending and transferring weapon systems that can test products during the development process to companies, and for the military to support the testing and evaluation of those products.

The law includes support for weapon system modification and development to produce products required by purchasing countries, and defense export support such as the military's pilot use of export products first.

For exporting companies, a new export industry cooperation system has been established, which actively transfers defense science and technology and mutually exempts offset trade obligations such as importing a certain amount of parts from purchasing countries.

To encourage companies' active participation in the defense industry, the law includes provisions to designate projects requiring high-level technology development or large-scale investment as national projects, granting benefits such as reduction of delay penalties and extension of development periods.

Projects with a total budget of 500 billion won or more, strategic research and development fields, and joint projects promoted by two or more central administrative agencies will be designated as national projects after review.

The defense industry development and support budget for this year under this law is 176.7 billion won, an 88.4% increase compared to the previous year (93.8 billion won). In particular, the budget for supporting the localization of weapon system parts increased more than fourfold from 20.3 billion won last year to 85.4 billion won. The budget for supporting small and venture companies also increased from 30.5 billion won to 41.8 billion won, and the budget related to export support rose from 43 billion won to 49.6 billion won, respectively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.