South Korea’s interest in selling submarines to Canada is an opportunity for our nation to diversify our defence partners at a time when reliance upon the United States is too big a risk.
In a previous article, we looked at why Canada should work with Germany’s Rheinmetall to get Skyranger 35 mobile air defence platform production up and running domestically.
Today, we’ll look at another country Canada should work with as we rebuild our military strength:
South Korea.
Despite significant historical and geographical differences, South Korea is similar to Canada in many ways.
With a well-educated population of about 50 million people, a technologically advanced service-oriented economy, and an overall GDP of about 2 trillion, South Korea is firmly in the ‘middle power’ category of nations, a country that may not be a superpower but that nevertheless has significant wealth and potential influence.
South Korea also faces some challenges similar to Canada, particularly the fact that its national defence has long been buttressed by the United States’ assumption that it will defend itself in case of a conflict.
But there is one undeniable difference:
South Korea borders one of the most brutal, ruthless, and dangerous regimes on the planet.
North Korea – a communist state/personality cult built around the Kim family – is a constant existential threat to South Korea. It is widely believed that tens of thousands of South Korean citizens in the capital of Seoul would be killed in the early hours of a South Korea – North Korea war. North Korea has a massive amount of artillery trained on South Korea at all times, and North Korea also possesses nuclear weapons.
South Koreans thus live with the knowledge that – at any moment – their nation could be plunged into a brutal war.
Unsurprisingly, South Korea invests substantially more in its military than Canada. South Korea spends just under 3% of GDP on defence, far above Canada’s figure of around 1.4%.
Just as importantly, South Korea has built up a powerful domestic defence industry.
South Korea produces artillery, tanks, missiles, ships, submarines, and fighter jets.
They know that they don’t have the luxury of being completely dependent upon weapons produced elsewhere, even as they are glad to cooperate with other nations on defence projects – Poland is purchasing South Korean self-propelled artillery and tanks for example.
South Korea has many lessons to teach Canada, particularly when it comes to domestic defence capability.
And South Korea is eager to partner with Canada more closely.
Earlier in March of this year, South Korean officials reached out to Canada to pitch a number of defence systems – particularly submarines:
“South Korea is offering a range of defense systems to Canada to bolster its military arsenal amid Ottawa’s deteriorating relations with the world’s top weapons supplier, the US.
A delegation of 12 government and industry representatives from Seoul visited Canada last week to promote domestically developed submarines, training aircraft, howitzers, and rocket launchers to Canadian officials.
In addition, South Korea offered to support Canada’s defense industry by establishing local maintenance facilities and providing full access to onboard technology — something US suppliers typically do not offer.
One of the key products being presented is the KSS-III submarine, developed by Hanwha Ocean.
Proposed to the Polish Navy in 2023, the advanced submarine features an air-independent propulsion system and is armed with six 533.4mm tubes for launching torpedoes, missiles, and bottom mines.
Hanwha Vice President Steve Jeong stated that the submarine meets all of Canada’s operational needs and could be delivered within just six years of a contract signing.”
I think the most important part of the announcement is this section:
“In addition, South Korea offered to support Canada’s defense industry by establishing local maintenance facilities and providing full access to onboard technology — something US suppliers typically do not offer.”
It’s not enough for Canada to just purchase equipment from other nations – though we certainly need to do that – we also need to build up our military-industrial capacity. Establishing facilities here in Canada would provide a long-term benefit for Canada.
Full access to technology is also key. Many large U.S. defence companies are on the defensive right now, because U.S. allies are worried that U.S. weapons cannot be trusted.
For example, while Lockheed Martin has denied the existence of a “kill switch” that could disable F-35s, it is the unfortunate reality that a U.S. President could withhold repair and maintenance parts for F-35s outside the United States, rendering the fleet less and less usable over time.
By offering to build maintenance facilities in Canada and giving us full access to the technology of the systems we would purchase, South Korea mitigates the concern that our weapons could suddenly become worthless.
And of course, Canada could use some submarines. Our current fleet of four Victoria-class submarines is badly outdated, and the plan to acquire up to 12 new submarines won’t deliver any new subs until 2035. If we can get some South Korean submarines in six years, that would be quite helpful.
(Note, the video below provides a good analysis of the KSS-III Submarine):
New defence partners
Rebuilding our military strength will be a challenge. Not because of a lack of financial resources, but because of decades of accumulated neglect. Our defence strategy has largely been as follows:
1 – Hope for the best.
2 – Hope America rescues us if we get in trouble.
The world is too dangerous to hope for the best, and America is unreliable.
So, we need new defence partners. Given that South Korea has reached out to us, we should reciprocate and take them up on their offer. Canada should buy South Korean submarines, and deepen our defence ties with South Korea in a way that benefits not just our short-term national defence, but our long-term sovereignty and military-industrial capability.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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