Press Release

Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Innovation Cluster Project 3rd year… Visible achievements one after another

yeongnam Province held the '2022 Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Cluster Council 1st Regular Session' on the 4th on the 4th ▲Revision (draft) of the internal operating regulations of the regional council ▲ Business promotion plan for 2022 ▲ Target tasks for the 2022 defense materials and parts development support project The selection (draft) was deliberated and decided.

The meeting was attended by members from 27 organizations, including Do Kim Young-sam, Director of Industrial Innovation Bureau, Kim Jin-hong, Director of Defense Industry Promotion Bureau, Defense Acquisition Program Administration, System Enterprises, and Defense Technology Promotion Institute.

he provincial government announced that since the Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Innovation Cluster pilot project was selected in April 2020, tangible results are being seen in various places as the project that has been promoted in earnest for the development of the Gyeongnam defense industry has reached its third year this year.

For the past two years, about 10 billion won has been invested in the construction of defense test and evaluation equipment that is practically helpful to defense small and medium-sized venture companies in the province. In particular, this year, 10 units of 10 types such as an ice rain tester and an explosive atmosphere tester, which had the inconvenience of having to go to areas other than Gyeongnam to conduct tests and evaluations due to the lack of equipment compared to the high demand of local businesses, are planned to be introduced. It is expected that this equipment will not only provide convenience to companies, but also satisfy the demand of small and medium-sized venture companies that wish to conduct environmental tests in the defense field by supporting more than 80 tests and evaluations per year for 30 companies.

The Advanced Defense Materials and Components Lab (Center), operated by Changwon University and Kyungnam University, achieved tangible results through R&D tasks, including 8 patent applications, 15 thesis presentations, and 1 technology transfer. Among the general tasks, the 'localization development of gear-type oil pump for the Sangryul assault vehicle (KAAV) engine (VT903)', which was jointly researched with Freetech Co., Ltd., was recognized for its achievements and is scheduled to be supplied to STX engines in 2023, about 600 million won for 10 years. More sales are expected.

The start-up support project (Gyeongnam Changwon Industry-Academic Convergence Institute) achieved 30 manpower training last year, 22 new jobs (five start-ups, 17 new jobs), and sales of participating companies grew by 192%. In particular, Neo Health Technology Co., Ltd. (task name: development of induction motor control board for defense) won the initial order for power converter for army general maintenance shop shop vehicles (30 units) through the defense industry start-up item, and sales increased about twice compared to the previous year (82 billion won → 1.6 billion won) and 8 new workers were hired, showing great growth even though it was an early start-up company.

Last year’s major business support cases include ▲Dongwon Precision Co., Ltd.’s development of an organic pressure buffer for self-propelled docking equipment (estimated sales of 2.9 billion won, import substitution savings of 1.7 billion won, 3 employees, 1 patent application) ▲ Development of ultra-low leakage type of HEMP protection filter by ISPEC (Estimated sales of KRW 3 billion, employment of 5 people) ▲ Participation in Changwon Technology Precision’s 2021 UAE Dubai defense and aviation industry regional specialized export consortium (contract promotion amount of KRW 12.8 billion, employment of 5 people) ▲Soooptics Co., Ltd.'s personal combat system (Warrior Platform) and long-distance scope delivery (direct sales of KRW 1.5 billion in 2021), etc.

In addition, the province announced that the method of selecting projects for defense product (parts) R&D support will change from this year. Initially, the system company designated defense products (parts) items and selected the small and medium-sized enterprises that can be developed through a public competition method that directly proposes defense products (parts) to be developed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and promotes R&D through free competition. It plans to strengthen the development capacity of the company and increase the participation rate of companies.

After the project performance report on that day, various opinions of the members were collected on this year's business plan.

Kim Young-sam, director of the Industrial Innovation Bureau, said, “As the Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Industry Promotion Center, which will lead the future development of the Gyeongnam defense industry, is scheduled to be completed early next year on a three-story scale, the successful promotion of the defense innovation cluster project, which is entering the third year of the project, and the future defense of Gyeongnam We ask for continued interest and cooperation from relevant organizations and regions in discovering follow-up tasks and policies that will lead the industry.”

In addition, Kim Jin-hong, co-chair of the Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Cluster Council (Director of Defense Industry Promotion Bureau, Defense Acquisition Program Administration) said, “The pilot projects in Gyeongnam and Changwon over the past two years have achieved many results through win-win cooperation with large, small and medium-sized enterprises utilizing regional characteristics. More efforts are needed to further expand the beneficiary companies and support future new growth engines. asked to participate.

Meanwhile, the Defense Innovation Cluster is a project jointly promoted by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, Gyeongsangnam-do, and Changwon City by investing KRW 21 billion in national and KRW 24 billion in local funds. It is a project that is being promoted as the core of establishing a defense industry cooperation ecosystem that gathers the capabilities of regional innovation actors such as government officials.

 2022-03-07  CNB News