Korea is likely to face tough price negotiations for its planned purchase of advanced attack helicopters, with costs currently appearing almost double the budget allocated for the project.The Defense Acquisition Program Administration plans to select the provider for 36 advanced military copters by late November. Boeing’s AH-64D Apache Longbow, Bell’s AH-1Z Cobra and Turkish Aerospace Industries/AgustaWestland’s T-129 choppers are competing for the deal. The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Age

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan (AP) -- Years before F-22 pilots began getting dizzy in the cockpit, before one struggled to breathe as he tried to pull out of a fatal crash, before two more went on television to say the plane was so unsafe they refused to fly it, a small circle of U.S. Air Force experts knew something was wrong with the prized stealth fighter jet.Coughing among pilots and fears that conta

The United States government has formally notified Congress of a plan to seek the sale of 36 advanced attack helicopters to South Korea.A deal under the Foreign Military Sales program, if sealed, would be worth up to US$3.6 billion.In two separate notifications to Congress, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency at the Pentagon provided details of proposed sales of Boeing's AH-64D Apache Longbow

The government on Tuesday called for a 5.1 percent increase in its defense budget for next year to improve defense and the welfare of its soldiers.The Ministry of National Defense has drawn up a spending plan worth 34.6 trillion won for 2013, up from 32.9 trillion won this year.It plans to allocate 24.1 trillion to the operations and maintenance of its strategic military bases, which includes boosting the health and welfare of its soldiers, and providing other necessities such as high-tech train

The Korean government on Tuesday endorsed a motion to extend its troop deployment in Somalia and the United Arab Emirates for another year until the end of 2013. The Cabinet meanwhile approved a separate bill, calling for the withdrawal of most soldiers in Afghanistan this year except for a 70-strong unit to protect aid workers and embassy staff.The proposals are subject to parliamentary approval.Korea dispatched 310 troops to the Gulf of Aden off Somalia in 2009 as part of a multinational effor

A senior Pentagon official said Monday that South Korea has "a lot of ways" to help the U.S. missile defense system in Northeast Asia."Yes, there are a lot of ways one can contribute," Kathleen Hicks, principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy, said at a forum. "We do have dialogue with the (South) Koreans about how to contribute to missile defense."She was responding to Yonhap News Ag

South Korea's Navy fired warning shots against North Korean boats operating south of the western sea border, military officials said, after raising the alert status in response to a number of ships violating the demarcation line over the past week.The North Korean boats retreated to north of the border upon the warning shots, officials said.The latest move comes as a growing number of North Korean

South Korea has developed a short-range ballistic missile aimed at destroying underground artillery bases in North Korea, a lawmaker of the parliamentary defense committee said Tuesday. The Joint Chiefs of Staff briefed committee members in a closed-door meeting Monday that the military has succeeded in developing the guided missile with a range of 100 kilometers and successfully conducted test-firing in May, according to a lawmaker who attended the briefing.The missile is designed to be fired f

The Ministry of National Defense estimates that the country’s defense operations will require about 199.6 trillion won ($177.3 billion) for the 2013 to 2017 period.The figure is 13.3 trillion won larger than that estimated in the mid-term defense plans for the period between 2012 and 2016.The change was included in the 2013 to 2016 mid-term defense plans reported to the National Assembly on Wednesday. Of the total, about 33.3 percent of the estimated budget will be directed to improving the mili

South Korea and the United States are pushing to hold regular joint exercises and train professionals to guard against growing threats of cyber attack from North Korea, a senior Seoul official said Wednesday.Concerns over cyber attacks on military infrastructure and government and communications systems have mounted as Seoul believes Pyongyang was behind the jamming of GPS signals on civilian flights and commercial ships earlier this year and the hacking of government Web sites and banking syste

2.7 tln won set aside to counter North's nuclear, artillery threats

The United States hopes for greater contributions by South Korea and other allies to its push to bolster its missile defense networks around the world, a senior State Department official said Monday."Creating this new strategic environment depends on strong cooperation with our allies and partners. In order to make this vision a reality, President (Barack) Obama has made international cooperation on missile defense a key priority," said Frank A. Rose, deputy assistant secretary at the Bureau of

South Korea on Friday conducted defense drills in waters near the easternmost islets of Dokdo to prepare for any situation in which foreigners trespass in the territorial waters, amid a continued diplomatic standoff with Japan. The joint operation by Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard kicked off earlier in the day under a scenario in which the maritime police play a leading role if citizens of other countries attempt to approach and illegally land on the islets. After the one-day training, th