[Column] Why is South Korea clamoring for yesterday’s nuclear submarines?

By Kim Jong-dae, former Justice Occasion lawmaker

The US Navy’s efforts to assemble underwater infrastructure are the topic of a lot debate. The US Congress and manufacturing trade declare that the nation wants to purchase extra Virginia-class nuclear submarines (Block IV and V) to offer extra job alternatives and to help industries. The Pentagon and Navy, however, argue that it wants to vary course by forgoing single-platform nuclear submarines and choosing extra-large uncrewed undersea automobiles (XLUUV) just like the Orca.
 
On the coronary heart of this debate is whether or not the US ought to prioritize present job alternatives or look towards the longer term to claim dominance over China and Russia.
 
The Pentagon and US Navy are loath to decide to the development of extra nuclear-powered submarines because it comes with fairly appreciable prices, as every vessel requires a crew of 134, US$4 billion to US$4.5 billion for building, and US$60 million to US$100 million in annual upkeep prices.
 
The Orca XLUUV would solely require US$55 million per car, can traverse 6,000 nautical miles — the space from Los Angeles to Seoul — and its capabilities may be augmented simply, enabling it to be utilized for varied missions. The argument right here is that 30 to 40 underwater drones are extra environment friendly than a single nuclear-powered submarine.
 
The US Navy’s “distributed maritime operations” and “Challenge 33” initiatives exhibit how it’s strongly pushing for a future system that depends much less on manned platforms, comparable to nuclear-powered submarines, and as an alternative focuses on unmanned techniques. The imaginative and prescient for this technique is obvious: Load extra ammunition on extra platforms and unfold them out over a variety to overload our opponents’ surveillance goal assault techniques. 
 
The magnificent silhouette that the blue-water navy conjures to thoughts is now a factor of the previous; naval hegemony is now achieved by means of an invisible web of sensors and shooters.
 
The US Congress is very important of the delays within the Orca program’s improvement and its overwhelming funds. The US Congress’s Authorities Accountability Workplace beforehand said that it’s “unclear whether or not the Navy will transition the XLUUV to a program of file.”
 
As a substitute of investing within the potential of unmanned techniques, Congress desires to pour assets into the tried-and-tested capabilities of the current. The US Home Committee on Armed Providers added US$1 billion in funds for Virginia-class submarines within the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act for Fiscal Yr 2026.
 
It doesn’t take a genius to infer that the US shipbuilding trade and military-industrial complicated, which is exceedingly delicate to the potential of including extra job alternatives, are behind that call. US President Donald Trump stands in the midst of these clashing events, siding with nobody whereas making an attempt to clumsily convey their opposing pursuits collectively.
 
Then, out of nowhere, South Korea declared that it might independently construct nuclear-powered submarines, the very vessels on the heart of a lot heated debate within the US. South Korean nuclear-powered submarines would lack nuclear weapons. It’s an odd weapons system that, regardless of missing nuclear deterrence capabilities, makes an attempt to swiftly monitor and spy on submarines deployed by North Korea and different neighboring nations.
 
Briefly, it’s an ideal illustration of the US Navy’s evaluation that deploying an exorbitantly priced, big submarine to the hostile atmosphere of the Korean Peninsula, the West Sea and the East China Sea could be an overconcentration of worth uncovered to enemy surveillance and concentrating on networks. 
 
After all, the US military-industrial complicated has no motive to shun these plans. If it makes use of nuclear gas provide as bait to make sure that a portion of South Korean submarines are constructed at US shipyards, the US Congress doesn’t need to exit of its strategy to increase its protection funds. This additionally explains why the US was initially reluctant to present the inexperienced mild when the Moon Jae-in administration expressed its need to assemble nuclear-powered submarines, solely to authorize it later. However Korea ought to assume lengthy and arduous about whether or not this coverage shall be a sensible one for our personal nationwide safety.
 
China has already joined fingers with Russia to pursue its “clear ocean” technique, which entails making a five-layer surveillance community inside its neighboring waters. The technique combines satellites, air surveillance, wave gliders, underwater drones and seabed sensors and is quickly gaining momentum because of the nation’s superior manufacturing skills and shipbuilding ecosystem.
 
South Korea must take into account methods to set up a singular maritime technique primarily based on AI know-how and manufacturing, which begs the query of whether or not we ought to be so connected to the concept of producing nuclear-powered submarines when it should burn greater than 10 trillion received and make us depending on US know-how.
 
That is even with out contemplating the assorted political prices we must waste to realize this objective. The shallow waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula and its complicated shoreline require a distributed sensor community slightly than one large supply platform. This can be a sector the place South Korean know-how and its manufacturing ecosystem can exhibit its prowess, and one that’s wealthy with potentialities. It is not going to be too late to pursue this objective after we ponder future safety points and the trajectory of advances in know-how.
 
Constructing nuclear-powered submarines within the mid-2030s? Why are we in such a rush to chase after the US military-industrial complicated system?

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