Chapter 39. Defense Industry and Technological Sovereignty: The Next Challenge for K-Defense

Defense Industry and Technology Sovereignty: K-Defense Industry’s Next Challenge The moment I was tracking an enemy plane at an altitude of 30,000 feet, the radar warning receiver rang. The enemy's surface-to-air missile radar began to bite me. At that moment, I sprayed chaff and flares with one finger and activated my electronic warfare equipment. The aircraft responded, and I survived. But what if the chips contained in the electronic warfare equipment are supplied only from overseas? What if the software update rights are in the hands of another country?

In a war situation, saying "Please wait for the parts to arrive" is a death sentence for a pilot. There is a term called technological sovereignty. It may sound difficult, but the meaning is simple. The question is whether my country has the ability to create, repair, and develop the necessary technologies on its own. It's like the difference between a mechanic who knows how to fix a car himself and a driver who has to take it to a repair shop every time. In the world of combat aircraft, this difference can mean life or death. A weapon that requires waiting for permission from others on the battlefield cannot be called a weapon.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the world witnessed shocking scenes. Russian military companies, whose imports of cutting-edge semiconductors were blocked by Western sanctions, began using chips from refrigerators and washing machines. It was a scene that showed how important semiconductors are in modern warfare. The amount of data processed by one fighter plane in one sortie is more than the amount processed by the entire Air Force during the Vietnam War. Hypersonic missiles fly by changing their path in milliseconds, or thousandths of a second. It all goes back to semiconductors.

Without semiconductors, modern fighter jets are just lumps of aluminum and titanium. So major countries around the world entered the war to secure semiconductors. The United States has invested $52 billion through the CHIPS Act, and China is pouring in more than $150 billion. The European Union has also established a semiconductor plan worth 43 billion euros. In April 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense established a new semiconductor innovation fund worth $1 billion. This is an expression of our will to complete the military semiconductor supply chain within the United States.

Semiconductors have now become a more important strategic asset than oil. Without oil, a tank stops, but without semiconductors, the brain of a fighter jet stops. Korea's defense industry, K-Defense, is achieving remarkable results. K9 self-propelled howitzers roll across the plains of Poland, K2 tanks are tested in Romania, and FA-50s soar over the skies of the Philippines and Malaysia. In 2023, Korea ranked 9th in global arms exports, and in 2025, exports exceeded $20 billion. Kim Dong-hyun, general manager of Hanwha Aerospace, said this at the 2025 Global Business Forum.

I did it. “In the past, independent national defense was a matter of duty and belief. Today, it is a matter of technological competitiveness and industrial leadership.” But behind the success lies a challenge. K-Bangsan's strengths were quick delivery, reasonable prices, and reliable quality. It is not as expensive as American products, and it is not as unreliable as Russian products. It has precisely penetrated a gap in the global arms market. But the fight ahead is on a different level. The ability to create hardware alone is not enough.

Self-reliance in these invisible areas, such as software, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence, is the real battleground. Engines are a prime example. It's the heart of a fighter jet. Korea created the KF-21 Boramae brilliantly, but its heart is an engine from the American GE company. If the US stops supplying engines, the KF-21 will not be able to fly. Engine development is difficult. Only a few countries in the world have single crystal alloy technology and precision casting technology that can withstand high temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius. However, to lead the 6th generation fighter era, we must overcome this wall.

You can't run a marathon with someone else's heart. The K-Chips Act, passed in February 2025, is an important step forward. The tax credit for investment in semiconductor facilities by large companies has increased from 15% to 20%, and for small and medium-sized companies from 25% to 30%. Plans to create a $471 billion semiconductor supercluster in Gyeonggi Province are also underway. The goal is to produce 7.7 million wafers per month by 2030. Efforts have begun to link private semiconductor capabilities with the defense sector. The electronic warfare library is also key. When enemy radar shines on me, I need to know its language.

Frequency, pulse repetition period, scan pattern. This information is contained in the electronic warfare library. If you don't know this, alarm sounds are just background music from a horror movie. However, this area is prone to external dependence. This is because technology transfer is difficult because it is a confidential field. Korea's experience in independently developing AESA radar is a valuable asset in this regard. When technology transfer was rejected, it was ultimately the right choice to not give up and create it ourselves.

공급망 보안도 빼놓을 수 없습니다. A fighter jet is made up of thousands and tens of thousands of parts. Radar, mission computer, data link, GPS receiver, display, and even a switch. If one part gets clogged, the whole thing stops. In peacetime, delivery is delayed, but in times of war, flights become impossible. There is a study that analyzed 30 cases of cyber infiltration targeting domestic and foreign defense companies from 2019 to 2023. The results were shocking. Detection capabilities at the end of the supply chain were lacking, and the current legal framework was insufficient to support active defense. Technology transfer is a double-edged sword.

Although it can help you win export contracts, it also comes with risks. If the other country has an industrial base, it can become a competitor with the technology we transfer. There is a case where Türkiye's Alta tank was developed with technology transferred from the K2 platform. Now Altai is K2's competitor. There needs to be a balance of sharing skills but keeping the core. Competition in the export market is also becoming fiercer. In the old days, performance and price were the competition. Now it's a battle between "alliance politics" and "update rights." Buying countries are asking.

If you buy this fighter jet, what data goes where? 누가 암호 키를 쥐고 있는가. 누가 소프트웨어를 업데이트하는가. The defense industry has changed from a business of steel and engines to a business of data and software. Minister of National Defense Lee Sang-myeong said this in October 2025. “To secure K-Defense’s global competitiveness, we must present our brand value as a trustworthy security partner.” The way the defense industry is developed must also change. The traditional approach was to take a large project for a long time and integrate it at the end. The future is the opposite. Make it small, blow it quickly, break it quickly, and fix it quickly.

The aircraft is bound to be slow for safety and certification reasons, but the software has no reason to be that slow. A structure is needed to separate aircraft certification and tactical software updates. The aircraft is stable and the tactical brain is agile. Technical standards also become weapons. Who sets the interface, who sets the data format, and who sets the communication standards between manned aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles. Whoever sets the standard becomes the center of the ecosystem. If we don't set a standard, we will always be a subcontractor, fitting parts to someone else's specifications.

If Korea really wants to take the lead, it should say, “We made it happen,” but “We let others adopt our standards.” 한국의 지정학적 위치는 험합니다. Surrounded by great powers, the population is shrinking, and the military is dwindling. The strategy to choose in this situation is the hedgehog strategy. small but deadly thorn

is to have. That thorn is K-Defense, armed with artificial intelligence and cutting-edge technology. As we saw in the war in Ukraine, cheap drones and AI software brought massive tank swarms to a standstill. In the end, technological sovereignty is not a matter of ethics or pride. It's a matter of tactics. We live in an era where opponents attack supply chains, shake satellites, and contaminate data through cyberspace. Power that cannot repair itself and upgrade itself is no different from a model in a glass display case. What survives in the sky is not the gas, but the system.

Taking the system into one's own hands is the essence of K-Defense's next-generation challenge.