Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

● Defense Agency for Technology and Quality publishes defense science and technology level report

Republic of Korea’s defense science and technology has been ranked No. 9 among the top 16 countries in the world.  

According to the Defense Science and Technology Level Report, an evaluation of the levels of the major countries’ weapon systems which was published by the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality (DTAQ) on April 16th, Republic of Korea was tied with Italy for ninth place in terms of the level of its defense science and technology, at 80 percent the level of the United States. 

Republic of Korea was ranked ninth in the world in the previous survey in 2015. 

The DTAQ is a group of domestic and foreign experts consisting of 362 people. The group investigates and assesses the defense technology level based on data on overseas development trends that were surveyed in advance, targeting a total of 23 countries including 16 countries that are advanced in the field of the defense industry and 7 countries with excellence in the area of special weapons systems.

According to the ranking determined by the DTAQ, Republic of Korea has been positioned in the advanced rank, following the most advanced country, the U.S., and France and Russia in the most advanced rank. 

The unchallenged first place went to the U.S. Using U.S. levels as 100 percent, France and Russia shared the second place with 90 percent. 

Germany and the United Kingdom shared fourth place with 89 percent, China gained sixth place with 85 percent, and Japan and Israel shared seventh place with 84 percent. 

According to the DTAQ, most countries including Republic of Korea showed a relatively lower level or only maintained their level compared to the previous survey, as the U.S. had increased its lead with the development of superior new weapons in various areas. The one exception was China, which has come to the front in the recent global defense industry market, and showed an improved level due to the development of various technologies, including up-to-date submarines, sixth-generation fighter jets, anti-ship ballistic missiles and hypersonic guided missiles. 

For its evaluation, DTAQ divided defense science and technology into eight categories, including command, control and communication, surveillance and reconnaissance, mobilization, warship, aerospace, military firepower, defense, and others (defense modeling/simulation, software). 

Looking at Republic of Korea's performance in the eight technology categories, it earned its highest ranking in the military firepower category with 84 percent, while defense modeling/simulation and software was the lowest at 76 percent.

“Improvements to the K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzer, among others, helped raise our military firepower technology level. Looking at the 26 subcategories by type of weapons system, our defense technology level was raised in terms of command and control, radar, underwater surveillance, submarine, artillery, guided weapon, underwater guidance, chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) systems,” DTAQ said.

DTAQ assessed that this was the result of the development of submarine systems and combat systems, sonar for submarines, core technologies for underwater guidance, and other technologies. 

“This investigation has an improved level of objectivity by using the results of an analysis of defense-related quantitative indices to select target countries, and in particular has improved the reliability of the investigation on defense technology levels by including 130 domestic and foreign experts for the first time, in contrast to our previous investigations that used only domestic experts,” the DTAQ said.

By Su-Yeol, Maeng guns13@dema.mil.kr

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