[The Editors' Verdict] Force Enhancement Must Consider the Future Battlefield

[Kim Jong-ha, Dean of Business and Defense Strategy Graduate School at Hannam University] The National Defense Committee of the National Assembly recently made significant cuts to the defense improvement budget allocated for military force construction. Although there are concerns about setbacks in force enhancement, it is believed that force enhancement will proceed without disruption, given that there has been no major change in the strategic situation necessary for acquiring weapon systems. However, this budget cut should prompt us to reconsider whether it is truly flexible to respond to future strategic environmental changes by continuing to separate programs such as command reconnaissance, maneuver firepower, naval vessels, aircraft, and guided weapons by each service branch, allowing each to determine specific weapon system requirements. Especially considering the integration occurring among various battlefield domains (land, sea, air, space, electromagnetic, cyber, etc.) due to the technological advances of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the reality that joint operations among the Army, Navy, and Air Force are now required across almost all battlefield domains, it is clear that the current method of force enhancement by function needs improvement.

As long as North Korea continues to threaten us with nuclear weapons and various ballistic missiles, it will not be easy to suddenly change the functional force enhancement method. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the current functional force enhancement approach for the time being, while gradually improving it from a long-term and strategic perspective that considers the future battlefield environment. To this end, several measures are required.

First, as integration among various battlefield domains will emerge due to the technological advances of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, our military must newly establish an integrated operational concept accordingly. This means that instead of operations by each service branch, it is necessary to establish a new concept for conducting operations across all battlefield domains based on information in complex operational environments. Through this, joint training among the Army, Navy, and Air Force should be conducted based on a battlefield environment encompassing not only the land domain but also the sea, air, space, electromagnetic, and cyber domains.

Second, it is important to recognize that the integration of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies into military power is not about creating new systems but about more closely and integratively fusing existing systems. Therefore, among defense improvement projects, new projects excluding ongoing ones should prioritize acquiring technologies necessary for integrating and fusing various platforms rather than acquiring new platforms. In particular, there should be careful consideration of which technologies to apply to which combat capabilities, how to allocate budgets efficiently for this purpose, and how to proceed with and manage related programs appropriately.

Third, in line with the rapid transition of combat execution systems to manned-unmanned hybrid systems, it is necessary to explore ways to replace the current platform-centered acquisition strategy, which is based on high-performance and high-cost weapon systems, with a swarming strategy that integrates multiple low-cost unmanned systems. This is not a choice but a necessity under the constraints of manpower shortages due to low birth rates and budget limitations. In this process, it is essential to continuously review through various war game verifications whether traditional forces, which require enormous budgets, are truly efficient, and simultaneously strive to find answers on how to achieve a desirable balance between technological performance and large-scale numerical capability.

Finally, efforts should be made to promote force enhancement projects that consider improving joint operational capabilities and interoperability with allied countries. In particular, continuous efforts are needed to build a foundation for mutual cooperation with allies and friendly countries regarding defense industry development. This is because international defense industry cooperation offers many advantages, such as shortening technology development periods, enabling stable parts supply, and saving budgets.

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