South Korea issues tender for Patriot launcher upgrade

A Patriot launcher displayed at KADEX 2024 held in Gyeryongdae, South Korea. (Janes/Oishee Majumdar)

South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has issued a tender to support its planned upgrade of the Republic of Korea Air Force's (RoKAF's) Lockheed Martin Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC) missile launcher.

Released on 18 March, the tender is intended to identify foreign companies to undertake the upgrades, and it has a budget of KRW305.8 billion (USD209 million).

According to the tender, a request for proposals (RFP) will be distributed to potential bidders present in an explanatory session to be held on 26 March.

The bidder offering “the lowest cost while satisfying the requirements” will be selected, DAPA said.

According to DAPA, the programme will “regenerate and improve the performance of Patriot launchers operated by the RoKAF”. However, DAPA did not elaborate on the details of upgrades to be undertaken as part of this programme.

DAPA approved a plan in 2021 to upgrade the PAC-2 missile launchers in operation with the RoKAF to enable the deployment of PAC-3 missiles. PAC-3 launchers hold 16 missiles compared with PAC-2's four, and are transportable by C-130 Hercules aircraft.

Janes World Air Forces lists MIM-104C PAC-2 Guidance Enhanced Missile Tactical (GEM-T) and MIM-104F PAC-3 Cost Reduction Initiative (CRI) as variants of the Patriot air-defence systems operated by the RoKAF.

According to Janes Land Warfare Platforms: Artillery & Air Defence , the Patriot system is a family of semi-mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems developed by Raytheon in the United States. It is a ground-based air-defence system utilising a missile interceptor to defeat airborne threats in the short-range air defence through medium-range air defence range brackets.