In this fortnightly online column, ADM journalist Corey Lee Bell covers defence news across Japan and the Republic of Korea.
Four administrative districts in north-west and central-west South Korea have been selected to host a new Defense Innovation Cluster, various official Korean sources announced on 14 June.
Chungcheongnam Province, Jeonbuk State, Incheon City and Nonsan City have each secured contracts after having been announced winners of the recently concluded Defence Innovation Cluster Project competition administered by South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
The competition, which ran over February and March, aims to link civilian tech start-ups and foundational industry small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with domestic defence industry firms to create region-based, self-contained ecosystems for key defence technologies of the future.
Funds of up to 49 billion won (approx. A $47.7 million) were earmarked for successful candidates, including a mix of federal funding and co-contribution requirements from provincial and municipal governments, according to a project information sheet released by Chungcheongnam Province’s Nonsan Municipal Government.
Nonsan and Chungcheongnam
Nonsan, whose status as a defence tech hub has seen it compared to the United States’ Huntsville, Alabama, was an unsurprising winner of the competition.
Nonsan and Chungcheongnam proposed to build a “defence industry innovation growth ecosystem for AI robotics” that would cover the entirety of the technology’s development-to-commercialisation cycle, according to the Nonsan council.
Major selling points included a pledge to develop a new 45,000m² defence equipment testing and certification centre in Nonsan’s southern Yeonmu township, which is the current home of the South Korean Army’s largest troop and aviation training centres.
Nonsan has also pledged a generous funding contribution of 17.8 billion won (approx. A $16.7 million), with provincial government allocations totalling 7.6 billion won (approx. A $7.1 million).
Nonsan in addition brought to the table an already rapidly expanding defence industry ecology, included the Korea National Defense University (KNDU), the Defense Future Technology Research Center, Konyang University’s K Defense Industry Support Centre, the Nonsan Defense Industrial Complex, a growing number of defence industry firms including Korean Defense Industries (KDI) and Poongsan FNS, and proximity to the National Defense Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center in nearby Daejeon City.
Jeonbuk
Jeonbuk State, which promised to match federal funding for the project (roughly 24.5 billion won = approx. A $22.9 million), pursued an aggressive promotional campaign which leveraged the region’s strengths in composite carbon materials, and recent successes in attracting investment from domestic defence industry firms.
Its proposal to develop a self-contained ecosystem that completely covers the design to procurement cycle for defence equipment composed of composite carbon materials, including high-heat resistant aerospace parts, equipment for drones and underwater systems, as well as hydrogen fuel cells and rechargeable batteries for electric powered weapons systems.
At the core of the bid was a plan to link the Jeonju Carbon Industrial Complex with the Saemanguen Demonstration Complex and National Industrial Complex – which aspires to be a major testbed for future industries including AI, robotics and green energy sources. The state also plans to develop a Comprehensive Defense Innovation Support Center.
Jeonbuk has grown in significance as a defence industry hub in recent months, bolstered by Jeonbuk National University late last year signing MoUs with 35 defence venture companies at the new Jeonbuk Defense Venture Center.
Its bid was further boosted at the last minute by Hyundai Rotem’s announcement in March that it would invest 300 billion won (approx. A $280 million) for a 750,000m² complex in the State’s northeastern Muju County.
Hyundai Rotem, which has a contract with the Ministry of National Defense for work on a next generation long-range missile, has stated the focus of the complex will be R&D and production of advanced propulsion systems including a hypersonic dual ramjet engine.
Incheon
Incheon City, which lies roughly 40km west of Seoul, proposed to build an Incheon Defense Industry Belt, with a particular contribution to developing and producing next-generation anti-drone technology equipped with edge-AI systems capable of real-time visual data processing and rapid analysis capabilities.
A key feature of its bid was to link its 10 million square metre Nambond National Industrial Complex, home to nearly 8,000 companies, with the Bupyeong National Industrial Complex – a growing stronghold of advanced tech industries including software defined vehicles.
The city’s bid also leveraged a rich ecosystem of pre-existing institutes with a heavy focus on advanced drones and aviation including the Incheon Defense Venture Centre, a dedicated Department of Aerospace Engineering at Inha University, and drone-exclusive testing sites/flight zones.