Seoul kicks off efforts to sell submarines to Australia

South Korea has embarked on efforts to export domestically designed submarines weighing more than 3,000 tons to Australia, while also in the final stage of bidding for a $4.6 billion project to sell Redback armored vehicles to the southern nation, according to South Korea’s defense procurement agency on Wednesday.

Last month, the Minister of South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration Eom Donghwan visited Australia and met with officials of the Defense Science and Technology Group (DSTG) and the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG), part of Australia’s defense department.

During his visit, South Korea hosted a defense technology conference in Australia's capital city of Canberra to promote its submarines and armored vehicles.

At the conference, Eom said that the combination of South Korea’s defense industry capabilities and Australia’s manufacturing infrastructure will develop the latter’s manufacturing industry and create jobs there.

By doing so, the two countries will be able to invest in defense technology R&D and production on a steady basis, like the US and the UK, he stressed.

During the conference, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. presented two models of its next-generation submarine class KSS-III: a 3,000-ton diesel-electric attack submarine commissioned last year; and a 3,700-ton lithium-ion submarine under development.

Daewoo is the world’s largest warship and submarine builder.

The attack submarines are capable of launching missiles, or submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). They are the world’s biggest and quietest conventional submarines, Daewoo explained.

“We're in our early-stage efforts to advance into the Australian market,” a Daewoo Shipbuilding official told The Korea Economic Daily.

“If we signed an order with Australia, we will be able to deliver the first model, which was already deployed to South Korea’s Navy, within a few years.”

Australia is expected to replace six Collins-class submarines, set to retire around 2026. They are diesel-electric submarines built by Australia and operated by its Navy.

Now, Australia is seeking to buy nuclear submarines. Last year, it signed a trilateral security agreement with the UK and the US, called AUKUS, to acquire nuclear submarine technology from the two countries.

But the retirement of the six conventional submarines is likely to precede the nuclear submarine technology acquisition, leaving a defense vacuum for Australia.

As for Redback armored vehicles, South Korea’s Hanwha Defense Co. is competing with Germany's Rheinmetall KF-41 Lynx to win the project, for which Australia is slated to choose the winner this year. 

Redback is a fifth-generation infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), developed in cooperation with Israel, Australia and Canada.

Separately, Hanwha inked a deal worth around $1 billion last year to supply K9 self-propelled howitzers to Australia. The company is the world’s top self-propelled howitzer producer.

The deal marked Hanwha's first sale of the self-propelled artillery system and Australia's first major defense systems purchase from an Asian contractor.

Following the deal, Hanwha recently reached a preliminary agreement to also supply the K9 self-propelled howitzers to Poland. The deal is part of South Korea's military contract with the European country, valued in excess of 20 trillion won.

The Poland deals include the sale of Hyundai Rotem’s next-generation main battle tank dubbed the K2 Black Panther and KAI’s FA-50 light fighter aircraft.

Write to Dong-Hyun Kim at 3code@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.