As major countries race to protect their own semiconductor industries and manage supply chains, the government has begun in earnest to localize defense semiconductors.
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said on the 23rd that, along with the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, it reviewed the "strategy to localize defense semiconductors and build an industrial ecosystem" at the 11th meeting of ministers on science and technology. The aim is to quickly secure development and manufacturing capabilities for defense semiconductors and to build a systematic industrial ecosystem.
The strategy calls for swiftly promoting defense semiconductor development based on stable government demand, including weapons systems acquisition plans, and mandating application to weapons systems based on government-led reliability testing and demonstration. Because mandating the application of domestically supplied defense semiconductors to weapons systems could affect schedules for force integration, the government plans to decide specifics after gathering feedback.
The strategy also includes building a public-private joint win-win fab to support manufacturing and mass-production research and development (R&D) for contract manufacturing (foundry) of defense semiconductors, and designating and fostering defense semiconductor businesses to cultivate specialists. In addition, the plan seeks to enhance the stability of the defense semiconductor supply chain by using domestic industry-academia-research and international cooperation networks, and to gradually strengthen technological competitiveness.
It is known that 99% of the defense semiconductors applied to Korean weapons systems are foreign-made. Accordingly, concerns have been raised that if global geopolitical volatility increases and supply chain disruptions occur, instability in supply and demand could hinder the force integration of weapons systems.
In response, the government has operated a pan-government defense semiconductor development task force since October. In June, it also enacted the Defense Semiconductor Act. The Defense Semiconductor Act passed the Cabinet meeting last month and was promulgated. The latest strategy is in line with these policy efforts.
Lee Yong-chul, head of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, said, "We will go beyond simply localizing individual parts and make every effort to build a sustainable, full life-cycle defense semiconductor ecosystem from design to production."