By Shin Hyon-hee
The Park Geun-hye government is pushing to bring in advanced, pricey military assets without a budget commensurate with the size of the projects, heaping a financial burden of billions of dollars onto its successor, a report said Monday.
After analyzing 22 weapons acquisition programs each worth 500 billion won ($415 million) or more, Rep. Baek Kun-ki of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy said the incumbent administration is expected to spend some 13.6 trillion won for defense by the time its term ends in late 2017, whereas the next government would bear more than 24.8 trillion won by 2020.
For instance, for a project to adopt four units of Airbus’ in-flight refueling tankers by 2019, the Park government is supposed to fund almost 360 billion won and its successor around 1.8 trillion won, the report claimed. The National Defense Acquisition Program Committee announced the result of the bid in late June, and the France-headquartered company is slated to deliver two planes in 2018 and another two the following year.
In another case, the government is set to pay the 376.9 billion won balance by 2018 for Surion initiative ― the country’s first indigenously developed military helicopter built by the Korea Aerospace Industries ― though the delivery will be completed in 2017, the retired four-star Army general said.
The mismatch appears to reflect Seoul’s struggle to balance its efforts to modernize weapons systems and boost defense capabilities, and needs to plug budget shortfalls and ensure fiscal soundness. While the Defense Ministry has been pressing ahead with ambitious purchase programs, the average defense budget growth rate stands at just about 3.9 percent under Park.
“The next administration will face critical problems maintaining a defense posture unless the incumbent allocates a realistic budget starting next year,” Baek said in a statement, calling for a comprehensive overhaul of the midterm defense plan.
(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)