ROK to Purchase Strategic Arms from US

[Sferrin]

ROK to Purchase Strategic Arms from US

SEOUL --- South Korea will begin talks with the United States to purchase the latter's strategic arms, such as surveillance assets and nuclear-powered submarine, Cheong Wa Dae said after a summit between the leaders of the two nations, Tuesday.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed on the South's purchase of cutting-edge military weapons to improve its own military capabilities during their summit.

These were their third bilateral talks and Trump's first visit to South Korea. It was also the first state visit of a U.S. president here in 25 years.

"We agreed to start talks on South Korea's acquisition and development of state-of-the-art military surveillance assets," Moon said in a joint press conference after the summit. "This is necessary to improve South Korea's own defense capabilities and the joint defense capabilities of the two nations."

Saying his country has great military equipment, Trump also said, "South Korea will be ordering billions of dollars of that equipment, which, frankly, for them makes a lot of sense and for us it means jobs, it means reducing our trade deficit with South Korea."

Regarding the agreement, a Cheong Wa Dae senior officials said the state-of-the-art strategic assets Seoul plans to adopt include a nuclear-powered submarine and surveillance assets, but exactly which weapons to acquire and how many of them to buy has not yet been decided.

"We may purchase the weapons or co-develop them with the U.S.," the official said, adding there were various things to review including technical aspects and it will take some time. "The two leaders agreed on the issues in principle during their previous summits as well, but there are things to solve when considering international norms and the characteristics of U.S. nuclear-powered submarines," he said.

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/188223/south-korea-to-purchase-strategic-arms-from-us.html

???

 

[fredymac]

ROK to Purchase Strategic Arms from US

SEOUL --- South Korea will begin talks with the United States to purchase the latter's strategic arms, such as surveillance assets and nuclear-powered submarine, Cheong Wa Dae said after a summit between the leaders of the two nations, Tuesday.


Regarding the agreement, a Cheong Wa Dae senior officials said the state-of-the-art strategic assets Seoul plans to adopt include a nuclear-powered submarine and surveillance assets, but exactly which weapons to acquire and how many of them to buy has not yet been decided.

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/188223/south-korea-to-purchase-strategic-arms-from-us.html

???

I wonder what is driving that preference? I could see a nuke sub if you had long range requirements but for regional missions, an AIP diesel would be cheaper. Or maybe they are thinking long term and Columbia class.

 

[Sferrin]

But their most likely foe is right next door. I could see a Virginia with VPM and some sea-based Hyunmu 2Cs being something they'd maybe be interested in though. Would be interesting to get the Virginia build rate up by tapping into South Korean ship building capacity. (Though I'll admit I have no idea how well that would go being submarines are different than ships.)

 

[GTX]

The nuclear subs might simply be an artefact of the U.S. Not typically having conventional subs to offer.

 

[Flyaway]

Could this open the door to the Japanese striking a similar agreement?

 

[Sferrin]

The nuclear subs might simply be an artefact of the U.S. Not typically having conventional subs to offer.

Lots of other countries do though. Why not just buy them from someone else? ???