South Korea promotes submarine plan of more than 20B for Canada, armored vehicles
Three South Korean companies have built huge multi-billion dollar pitches to Canada, promising to quickly replace the Navy’s aging submarines, provide more firepower to the Army, and help revitalize the country’s defense industrial base.
CBC News details the unsolicited proposal, which was delivered to the federal government in early March.
Two years ago, two years ago, two years ago, companies were eager to expand full support for the defense and security partnership signed with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Seoul.
CBC News was given unprecedented exclusive access to South Korea’s defense and security officials, as well as two defense factories and shipyards that shelved competitive differences in order to bid for Canada’s submarine replacement program.
Hanwha Ocean and Modern Heavy Industry submitted a detailed joint speech worth $20 billion to $24 billion, pledging to deliver the first four submarines between 2035 and 2035, the current Royal Canadian Navy deadline, with only one new ship received. It also advertises building maintenance facilities in the country that will employ Canadians.
Hanwha Aerospace, a sister company of the shipyard, has separately made two detailed suggestions to re-equip with large mobile howitzers and rocket artillery, similar to the American-made Himar system. It also proposed larger armored vehicles to fill gaps in the army’s tracking of tanks and defense.
South Korean defense officials say the stadiums are worth more than $1 billion, depending on the Canadian government's choice and with rapid delivery times and the possibility of establishing maintenance and potential manufacturing.
When Ottawa reconsidered the U.S. arms contract, South Korean weapons manufacturers wanted to supplement Canada's exhausted military, from howitzers to submarines. Murray Brewster of CBC has exclusive access to a company fishing, becoming Canada's new high-tech arsenal.
The proposals represent unprecedented diplomatic and corporate efforts to enable Canada to purchase its military equipment elsewhere outside the United States and Europe.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Hyunki Cho Cho told CBC News in a recent translator interview. “If we do succeed in selling, we will try our best to strengthen the Canadian defense industry’s capabilities and to promote defence cooperation.”
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The bid comes at a time when many Canadians (faced with the Trump administration’s trade war and annexation threat) demanding that the federal government cancel large-scale military purchases from the United States, including the F-35 fighter program.
Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government ordered a review of the plan and hinted that Canada could adopt aircraft that had been paid and look elsewhere to fill the rest of the order. Canada said in total that it needed 88 senior fighters.
Although the Korean Aerospace Industry (KAI) did not submit a complete proactive proposal, it expressed interest in using Canada's F-50 fighter as a training aircraft that could quickly convert it into fighter jets.
South Korea has also begun working with Indonesia to build its own stealth fighter jets. However, KAI officials have not provided it to Canada.
Despite the enthusiasm, there is deep suspicion between South Korean defense and foreign policy officials and observers that Canada severely breaks its dependence on the U.S. defensive industrial complex.
During the recently concluded federal election campaign, Carney repeatedly made it clear that relations with the United States have undergone irreversible changes.
“Our old relationship with the United States has ended based on deepening our integration with the U.S. economy and strict security and military cooperation,” Carney said in Ottawa on March 27.
Liberals acknowledged that when the campaign began, joining the EU’s defense defense plan was in-depth negotiations, which qualified Canada to jointly procure with allies on the continent.
South Korean defense experts pointed out that Europe is still figuring out how to re-arm as many defense industries need to reopen and re-open production lines since the end of the Cold War.
“Supply chains are weak in Europe,” said Kayla Mijung Kim of the Korea Institute of Industrial Economics and Trade.
“For example, Germany and France want to build their own weapons systems, but they are limited. They can't procure all the defense components needed by European countries. I think they need some time.”
Production bottlenecks (which are clearly shown as countries are eager to arm Ukraine) drive some NATO allies to look elsewhere.
Poland is the most dramatic example.
Since 2022, Warsaw has signed contracts worth $16 billion to $22 billion with South Korean companies. Many trades for K2 Black Panther tanks, the K9 self-propelled howitzer and the K239 Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers have been broken down into divisions. Since then, other deals have been with Norway, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, Romania and the United Kingdom.
Recently, Australia joined the plan to build 129 infantry fighting vehicles through a $61.9 billion plan, many of which were built in the Commonwealth country.
South Korea's defense acquisition plan management minister Seok Jong-Gun said the agreement with Poland is a breakthrough to convince Western allies to consider other sources.
“South Korea had little reputation as a defense exporter before the large contracts with Poland,” he told CBC News in a translator interview. “However, with large-scale contracts with Poland and throughout the process of implementing these contracts, many countries have found that South Korea is able to provide quality products in a timely manner.”
Quotes to help build manufacturing and maintenance facilities have been key to reaching a deal, Seok said.
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol has raised the country's share of defense exports so priorities that South Korea appears to be the world's fourth-largest arms manufacturer by 2027.
“In the past few years, we have seen a significant increase in exports from the defense sector,” Seok said.
For now, the Canadian military faces many challenges overseas and at home. It has been working to realize the power of equipment in Latvia, including modern anti-tank weapons, air defense systems and anti-drone technology.
It also lacks mobile artillery and rocket-based artillery, which is a characteristic of the war between Ukraine and Russia.
The Army currently has 47 capital projects on its journey, Lieutenant. Mike Wright, the country's top soldier, told CBC News in February.
When asked if he was satisfied with the equipment of the NATO mission in Latvia, Wright said: “The army we have now is not the army we need in the future.”
One defense expert said there wasn't much time to replace the critical system.
Dave Perry, president of the Canadian Institute of Global Affairs, outlines some of the major equipment that the Canadian army needs to replace, upgrade or add.
“We've been on the way to the government kicking cans for decades, and I think we're on the way right now,” said Dave Perry, president of the Canadian Institute of Global Affairs. “In some cases, our equipment is actually rusted.”
He said that Seoul's proposal is worthy of serious consideration, whether it is a dedicationist, because it can quickly fill some important gaps, which is an important consideration because we don't know what a defensive industry partnership with Europe would look like.
South Korea “Some of our other allies want to meet capacity delivery needs quickly.
“They already have a trail of being able to deliver a lot of equipment in a very short time. The Canadian Armed Forces are in a time when we are really seriously under-ready for operations. We really need to look for options that can meet at least some of the needs we are used to.”
