The military authorities are pushing a project for the "Korean rifle-II" to replace the mainstay K2 rifle. The K2 rifle was first mass-produced in 1985 and has been the individual firearm used across the entire military for 40 years. The military is also pursuing a project to replace the K5 pistol. Given past noise over rifle acquisition projects—such as misfires and leaks of classified information—attention is on whether this project will proceed properly.
According to the military authorities and others on the 3rd, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration is currently drawing up the basic strategy for pushing the "Korean rifle-II" project. It is reviewing whether to "purchase" products from domestic and foreign companies or to pursue "research and development" to produce a new domestically made firearm.
As it specifies the military's requirements such as required performance, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration is also calculating the total project cost. Under the current plan, the initial project size is expected to be 500 billion won, with a total project cost of 2 trillion won. The agency plans to finalize the basic strategy within this year and launch the project in 2028.
This year marks the 41st year since the K2 rifle went into mass production. 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 licensed production of the M16 rifle.
The K2 rifle was built by combining the advantages of the M16, mainly used by Western countries, and the AK-47, used by the communist bloc. 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, which favors sustained fire.
The K2 can fire 700 to 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 determined by its barrel, and as domestic barrel manufacturing methods and material technologies have advanced, the K2's barrel performance has gradually improved.
The K2 underwent major upgrades in 2012. Globally, the trend was to mount accessories such as laser target designators or night-vision devices on small arms, but the K2 could not accept rails or auxiliary grips. SNT Motiv rolled out a K2C1 prototype in 2015 reflecting this, and it was fielded the following year. The stock can be adjusted in five positions, the handguard was improved, and rails were added to attach accessories. Performance such as effective range and rate of automatic fire remained the same.
Meanwhile, the chronic drawbacks that had been pointed out 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 inevitably face inconvenience. In particular, the K2's selector (the device that controls firing modes such as semi and safe) is only on the left, making operation difficult. By contrast, the M4-series rifles have selectors on both sides, allowing thumb-only operation and thus convenience. There have also been cases where the rifle stopped working when contaminated with mud and the like.
The military authorities plan to address this in the new rifle. Industry sees durability as the key for the next rifle. The standard should be reliable operation even after being completely submerged in muddy water. A military source said, "During training in mountainous terrain, the likelihood of dust or mud getting into the rifle is extremely high," and added, "The K2 rifle was weak in durability under such conditions."
Barrel rigidity and reducing the rifle's weight are also cited as core tasks. Some have argued for increasing the caliber, but the new rifle project is widely expected to adopt 5.56 mm.
Alongside the K2 rifle, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration is also pursuing a new handgun project to replace the K5 pistol. The K5 pistol began development in 1984 at Daewoo Precision Industries, the predecessor of SNT Motiv, and has been in service since 1989. As with the Korean rifle-II project, a preliminary study is underway. The agency plans to run the new pistol project on the same timeline as the rifle project. The expected initial lot is estimated at 3 billion won.
The military has tried to push firearm acquisition projects in the past, but repeatedly failed. It moved to adopt the K11 dual-barrel rifle in 2010, but various problems, including in-bore explosions, led to repeated production halts and restarts until it declared an end to fielding in 2018. The K2C1 was also slated for a total of 59,000 units, but procurement stopped at around 10,000.
The first phase of the special operations submachine gun project, which began in 2016 as research and development, was halted due to the selected contractor's leak of military secrets. The special operations submachine gun project is intended to replace the K1A submachine gun used by special forces units such as the Army Special Warfare Command. After being halted, the project restarted when it was announced in Feb. last year, and testing and evaluation are currently underway on products from SNT Motiv and Dasan Machineries.
An official in the defense industry said, "The perception that Korea lags in the firearms sector stems from poor project management by companies and the government," and added, "For the next rifle project to succeed, swift budget securing and precise project management are needed." Shin Jong-woo, secretary-general of the Korea Defense and Security Forum, said, "As North Korea is also pushing to modernize individual firearms, modernization of our military's rifles and the like is urgent."