South Korea keen to collaborate with M’sia on infantry fighting vehicles upgrade

South Korea has expressed keen interest in collaborating with Malaysia to upgrade its fleet of K200 Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV).

Minister of South Korea’s Defence Acquisition Programme Administration, Major General (Rtd) Seok Jong Gun said as Malaysia sets its sights on modernising its military arsenal, the potential partnership between the two nations’ defence industries holds promise for ensuring the longevity and reliability of the K200 IFV.

The Malaysian Army’s decision to upgrade its K200 IFV comes at a critical juncture, with the fleet requiring comprehensive enhancements to meet the evolving demands of modern warfare, he added.

“South Korea provides a thorough follow-on logistics support for the weapons supplied to its partners.

“As the Malaysian Army is moving towards upgrading its K200 IFV which has been in service for more than 30 years, I hope that the upgrade can be performed in partnership between Malaysian and Korean defence industries so that the vehicles can be operated stably for a longer period.”

Seok told Bernama at the Defence Services Asia and the National Security Asia 2024 exhibitions that 111 K-200 KIFV have been imported from South Korea since the 1990s. Malaysia is the sole export customer of this armoured vehicle.

Between 1993 and 1995, Malaysia received 111 K200A1 – the upgraded variant of the base K200 with more powerful engines and transmission.

The upgrade involved additional armour and a more powerful turbocharged engine, nuclear, biological and chemical protection, and an automatic fire extinguishing system.

Seok said South Korea also aims to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on defence industry and logistics cooperation with Malaysia, as part of efforts to formalise and institutionalise their defence collaboration.

“Based on the MoU, the two countries can regularly discuss the direction of defence industry cooperation and find solutions for any issues that may arise in different stages of cooperative programmes which would help further strengthen the partnership.

“I hope the defence industry collaboration which has started to grow after the signing of contract for FA-50 can lead to more comprehensive and long-lasting partnership through collaboration in other weapon systems,” Seok said.