The military authorities are pushing the "Korean rifle-II" program to replace the main service rifle, the K2. The K2 rifle was first mass-produced in 1985 and has been the individual firearm used across all units for 40 years. The military is also pursuing a program to replace the K5 pistol. Given past noise over defects in firing and leaks of classified information in firearm procurement programs, attention is on whether this program will proceed properly.
According to the military authorities and others on the 3rd, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration is currently formulating the basic strategy to promote the "Korean rifle-II" program. It is reviewing whether to "purchase" products from domestic and foreign companies or to conduct "research and development" to produce a new domestic firearm.
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration is also calculating the total project cost while detailing the military's requirements, such as required performance. Under the current plan, the initial program size is expected to be 500 billion won, with a total project cost of 2 trillion won. The agency plans to finalize the basic promotion strategy within this year and launch the program in 2028.
This year marks the 41st year since the start of mass production of the K2 rifle. Development began in 1975 under the lead of the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) in the Ministry of National Defense's arsenal building (now the SNT Motiv plant), where Korea had license-produced the M16 rifle.
The K2 rifle was designed by combining the strengths of the M16, mainly used by Western countries, and the AK47, used by Communist bloc states. After various operational tests starting in 1982, mass production began in 1985. It was evaluated as being shorter than the M16, lighter than the AK series, and having less recoil, making it advantageous for sustained fire.
The K2 can fire 700–900 rounds per minute and has an effective range of 600 meters. That is longer than the effective ranges of the AK series (350 meters) and the M16 series (550 meters). A rifle's combat power is largely determined by its barrel, and as barrel manufacturing methods and material technologies have advanced domestically, the barrel performance of the K2 rifle has also gradually improved.
The K2 underwent a major upgrade in 2012. While it had become a global trend to attach accessories such as laser target designators and night-vision devices to small arms, the K2 could not mount rails or foregrips. SNT Motiv released a K2C1 prototype reflecting this in 2015, and it was fielded the following year. The stock can be adjusted in five positions, the handguard was improved, and rails were added for attaching accessories. Performance metrics such as effective range and rate of automatic fire remained the same.
Meanwhile, areas long cited as chronic drawbacks remain unaddressed. Both the K2 and K2C1 are designed primarily for right-handed users. With the charging handle and magazine release button on the right, left-handed users are inevitably inconvenienced. In particular, the selector (the device that controls firing modes such as semiautomatic and safe) on the K2 is only on the left side, making it hard to operate. By contrast, the M4 series has selectors on both sides and can be conveniently operated with just the thumb, it is said. There have also been cases of stoppages when contaminated with mud and the like.
The military authorities plan to address this in the new rifle. In the industry, durability is cited as the key for the next rifle. The view is that it must operate normally even after being fully submerged in muddy water. A military source said, "During training in mountainous terrain, the probability of dust or mud entering the rifle is very high," and noted, "The K2 rifle was weak in durability in such conditions."
Barrel rigidity and reducing the weapon's weight are also cited as key tasks. Some had argued for increasing the caliber, but for this rifle program, it is widely understood that 5.56 mm is the most likely.
Alongside the K2 rifle, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration is also pushing a new firearm program to replace the K5 pistol. The K5 pistol was developed starting in 1984 by Daewoo Precision Industries, the predecessor of SNT Motiv, and was fielded beginning in 1989. As with the Korean rifle-II program, a preliminary study is underway. The agency plans to carry out the new pistol program on the same timeline as the rifle program. The expected initial quantity is valued at 3 billion won.
The military has previously pursued firearm acquisition programs but failed repeatedly. In 2010, it sought to introduce the K11 dual-barrel rifle, but various problems such as in-barrel explosions led to repeated production stoppages and restarts, and in 2018 it declared a halt to fielding. For the K2C1, the plan was to procure a total of 59,000 rifles, but it stopped after about 10,000.
In the case of the special operations submachine gun Program 1 (research and development), which began in 2016, it was halted due to the selected contractor's leak of military secrets. The special operations submachine gun program is to replace the K1A submachine gun used by special units such as the Army Special Warfare Command. This halted program restarted when it was announced in Feb. last year, and testing and evaluation of products from SNT Motiv and Dasan Machineries are currently underway.
A defense industry source said, "The reason Korea's firearms sector is assessed as lagging is that companies and the government failed to manage programs properly," and added, "For the next rifle program to succeed, rapid budget securing and precise program management are needed." Shin Jong-woo, secretary general of the Korea Defense and Security Forum, said, "As North Korea is also pursuing modernization of individual firearms, modernization of our military's rifles and other small arms is urgent."