From howitzers to shipyards, South Korean firm expands role in US defense

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00:00The United States military may be considered the most dominant on the planet, but it needs

00:15help holding on to the title.

00:17The collection of companies supporting the military, called the Defense Industrial Base,

00:22also needs help making the things the military uses.

00:26So whether it's stuff that goes boom or zoom, more and more it means relying on other countries.

00:33And South Korea may be in the best position to help.

00:40So the US military has a pretty massive need to modernize, but it's more than just making

00:45new weapons and platforms.

00:47The US needs to change the way it goes about making those weapons and platforms.

00:52The Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia is sort of a microcosm of the problem.

00:58It's one of just six places in the United States that makes the explosives, propellants, and

01:03munitions the Army uses.

01:06It was built in the 1940s, and even though it's been upgraded since then, the plant just is

01:12not made for modern demands.

01:14It's a very old and the systems equipment process are essentially outdated.

01:21They're not to the newest technology and standards.

01:25That's Jeff Brinozzi.

01:26He's the president of a company called Global Ordnance.

01:30It's what's known as a systems integrator for the Department of Defense.

01:34So they do things like supply and source different parts, materials, or finished products for the

01:40US military.

01:41It's an extremely important job and there's no room for error.

01:45So for example, for a tank, a tank round and tank ammunition, you have a propellant that's

01:53inside of a cartridge case.

01:55And as the, inside the tank, the tanker is loading it.

01:58Their head is probably this far from where that detonation is happening and throwing and

02:03shooting that tank round.

02:04That has to happen correctly every single time.

02:06One time having a problem, obviously you're, you're killing a tank crew.

02:10The need to ramp up artillery and other forms of military production really came into focus

02:16after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

02:19In the early days of fighting, Russia and Ukraine were firing about 10,000 artillery rounds

02:25at each other every day.

02:27At the time, the US was producing maybe 10,000 rounds a month.

02:32So starting under President Joe Biden and continuing under President Trump, Uncle Sam started investing

02:39heavily in the US DIB.

02:42And it was really across the board.

02:43Shipbuilding and repair, munitions manufacturing, drone development, all got a boost.

02:48The message also went out to US suppliers to find creative ways to meet the moment's

02:54needs.

02:55In October, Global Ordinance announced a partnership with Hanwha Defense USA.

02:59That's the American subsidiary of the South Korean defensive giant, Hanwha, which is into

03:06artillery shells, shipbuilding, and pretty much everything in between.

03:10Together, Global Ordinance and Hanwha are vying to be the next operators at the Radford Ammunition

03:17Plant for the US Army.

03:19They would not own the facility, but they'd update and operate it for the Army, a task

03:25currently contracted to BAE Systems and worth billions.

03:30Hanwha already has a contract to revamp one building at Radford.

03:34But Brnozzi says if GEO and Hanwha win the operator contract, it would allow the decades

03:40of innovation and experience Hanwha already has to be fully brought to bear in one of the

03:46only places in the US making explosives for the Army.

03:50They've automated those chemical processes, both making it safer and making it more efficient

03:58to produce propellants.

04:01The other thing that we'll benefit from is there's more advanced propellants that will

04:05be able to be introduced that have been designed over time.

04:08The US currently, one of their advanced propellants that we use for our artillery weapons is not

04:17even produced at Radford at this point, because the technology at Radford can't produce it

04:22well or efficiently.

04:25And it's produced in a plant that General Dynamics owns in Canada.

04:30So that's one of the things that we'd be looking to do is bring those types of technologies, be

04:34able to produce the current and next generation type propellants using advanced technology that

04:40they've already developed.

04:42Plus, a lot of the automation pieces that continue to evolve efficiency and safety, especially safety.

04:49Since the 50s, I mean, Korea has long been a natural ally of the US.

04:57And because of necessity, you know, when you have a pretty unpredictable neighbor to the north,

05:04it really forces and focuses a country and an economy on the ability to execute with certainty.

05:11Mike Smith is the president and CEO of Hanwha Defense USA.

05:15He's a US Navy veteran with about 20 years worth of experience in the US defense industrial base.

05:21You know, Secretary Hegseth talks about the warrior ethos, you know, regaining, recapturing that.

05:27Well, Hanwha, we bring in an industrial warrior ethos because you need to have that underlying

05:33industrial capacity to arm and equip, you know, our warfighters so that they can execute any mission

05:41that is put in front of them. Smith says South Korea and by extension, its defense industrial base

05:47did not develop with the same sort of luxuries often enjoyed by their US and European counterparts

05:55because those counterparts did not have a nuclear armed neighbor to their north promising their

06:00destruction. When you're on a war, you know, the wartime footing 24-7, 365 in terms of schedule,

06:08you better deliver today because I might be shooting it tonight. In terms of cost, it better

06:13cost with it better fall into my cost envelope because I see that I need a certain number of

06:17these things and I have a fixed budget and then performance. It just better perform as advertised

06:23because we're all relying upon this. So it's just a very different approach to program management,

06:31program delivery. That change in approach seems to be working for Hanwha. In just the last couple of

06:38years, the company signed contracts with companies like General Atomics to develop unmanned systems and

06:44Blue Space AI to expand autonomous software at the DoD. Smith says Hanwha is also pitching its

06:50canine mobile howitzer to replace the Army's current platform. Hanwha also bought the Philly shipyard

06:57and is currently upgrading the infrastructure there. And we're looking to create the benefits of being

07:03a commercial yard that also has the capacity to produce naval vessels. Now, if they're going to be

07:08uncrewed vessels, if they're going to be auxiliaries, if there'll be blocks in support of existing

07:15shipbuilding programs, or if they're modules or blocks for Columbia or Virginia class,

07:20well, those are all kind of based on demand signal and what the customer needs from industry and

07:25where we might play. But we're looking to play a meaningful role in that shipbuilding industrial base.

07:30By playing a meaningful role in the industrial base, Hanwha and South Korea would also play a role

07:37in both the physical and financial security of the United States, something not lost on national

07:43security experts like Irina Suckerman. This partnership obviously began as a fairly conventional alliance

07:53based on shared deterrence on the Korean peninsula against common threats, including specifically North

08:00Korea and later on also China. But now it's evolving into also almost commercial cooperation and

08:09certainly an industrial partnership. It's relevant both to the current context of heightened tensions

08:18with the Kring alliance, Kring being China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, but also more global reach in

08:27terms of its commercial benefits. So the idea here is that it's not that diplomatically the relations have

08:35been upgraded, but the co-production value has expanded sufficiently and significantly.

08:43The relationship between the U.S. and South Korea goes both ways. While Seoul continues to invest heavily

08:50in U.S. companies, President Trump says in return, the U.S. will share the technology needed to build

08:57a nuclear powered submarine with Seoul. For more reporting like this, download the Straight Arrow News app today.

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