South Korea unveils strategy to localize military semiconductors and mandate domestic chips in weapons

South Korea unveiled a strategy on July 23 to accelerate development and domestic production of military semiconductors, jointly presented by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) at the 11th meeting of science and technology ministers. The plan uses predictable government demand from weapons acquisition programs to drive chip development: military semiconductors developed under the program will undergo government-led reliability testing and operational demonstrations, and once they meet required standards, their use in applicable weapons systems will be made mandatory. The government will leverage existing public and commercial fabrication facilities as an initial production base and plans to establish a dedicated public-private semiconductor fab for defense-chip R&D and mass production. South Korea currently imports roughly 99% of the semiconductors used in its weapons systems. The strategy builds on the earlier plan to raise domestic defense-chip production to 50% by 2029.