SAM-X
In early 1994 Korea considered a Patriot acquisition program of five Patriot Fire Units four tactical and one training. U.S. Army analysis presented to the Government of Korea in May 1993 assessed that this minimum program can be deployed as an integrated air defense with existing HAWK and other air defense assets and effectively defend the populated areas of Seoul and Inchon against the full range of North Korean high performance aircraft, cruise missiles and SCUD tactical ballistic missiles," states the Raytheon documentation. At the request of the Ministry of Defense planners, the proposed program includes four tactical Fire Units with six launchers each, a training fire unit with two launchers, and a total of 196 Patriot missiles; intended for the defense of the Seoul/Inchon metropolitan area, In 2000, South Korea announced plans to buy 48 PAC-3 advanced Patriot missiles to boost its ability to shoot down incoming North Korean ballistic missiles and aircraft at a high altitude. The 1.1 trillion won (US$1 billion) SAM-X project, however, was not implemented as questions were raised about its efficiency amid criticism that it was intended as part of the U.S.-led global missile.
South Korea sought to replace the Nike missiles with PAC-3 missiles, the advanced version of the Patriot, under a $1.6 billion procurement project, code-named SAM-X. The Defense Ministry originally planed to award the contract to Raytheon by the end of 2001. But military officials said the decision would be postponed until 2002 after the negotiation broke up mainly over price and the timetable for payments. Raytheon was the sole bidder to provide South Korea with 48 ground-to-air missile systems since Russia's Rosvoorouzhenie dropped out of the race in 2000.
By 2005 South Korea's indecision to introduce U.S.-made Patriot missiles was creating a hole in its air defense system, as South Korea has already begun disbanding its aging U.S.-made high-altitude Nike Hercules missile units without any decision on substitute missiles. But the country seemed unlikely to make a decision on it any time soon and may even kill it.
The ROK requested specs and data from the US on the PAC-3 missiles in January 2006, but did not mean they were going to buy it -- only doing comparisons. The SAM-X program was still in the air as of 2007 over procurement of used PAC-2 missiles from Germany. South Korea planned to purchase Germany's leftover Patriot missile systems and purchase only ground-control equipment from the United States.
On April 21, 2008 Raytheon Company received a $241 million U.S. Foreign Military Sales contract to provide the Republic of Korea with command and control, communications, maintenance support, and training equipment for the Patriot air and missile defense system. This production and support award complements the $28.7 million engineering services contract the company announced March 3. The Patriot system will provide South Korea with the capability to deploy command and control for the Patriot system and defend itself from the full spectrum of air and missile threats.
Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) is the prime contractor for the Patriot system and the integration of all variants of the
system. The capability delivered will provide improved air and missile defense for South Korea. Work will be performed at Raytheon's Integrated Air Defense Center, Andover, Mass.; the Warfighter Protection Center, Huntsville, Ala.; and the Mission Capability and Verification Center, White Sands, NM.Germany finally sold second-hand Patriot missiles to South Korea, intended to modernize the country's military capacity. The South Korean Air Force received the first shipment of Patriot missiles from Germany on 28 November 2008. The 48 anti-missile and anti-aircraft launch modules, which will replace the country's outdated Nike air defense missiles, were to be deployed by 2012 after two years of trial operation. The air force agreed in September 2007 to buy the Patriot rockets for 1.05 trillion won ($710 million, 551 million euros) second-hand from Germany. The first shipment arrived in August 2008 but had been undergoing a series of performance tests before Seoul officially took delivery. The purchase package will also include launch modules and relevant radar systems from Germany beginning in 2008 to replace South Korea's aging ground-to-air Nike Hercules missiles.
The deployment of upgraded Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) systems is a core part of Seoul's plan to build an independent theater missile defense shield, dubbed the Korean air and missile defense (KAMD) network system. The KAMD, also involving Aegis destroyer ship-to-air missile defense systems, is designed to intercept low-flying, short- and medium-range missiles from North Korea.
