Soul Park and Chiaryu Thakkar, in ‘Filling the Weapons Procurement Gap in the Indo-Pacific: South Korean Arms Exports to India and Indonesia’, examine how second-tier arms producers evolve to address the challenges of globalised defence industries and register increased sales in the most strategic areas. Published on 17 December 2024, the article contends that arms procurement must be examined from the demand side. Advanced power-projection weapons are usually the priority of first-tier suppliers, leading to structural gaps in the global arms market. These gaps are either generated through excessive technological superiority or the relative omission of specific platforms, forcing buyer states to second-tier producers whose weapon systems are more commensurate with their strategic, technical, and doctrinal requirements. Through South Korean arms sales to India and Indonesia, the article gives an example of how second-tier producers sometimes outmanoeuvre their first-tier rivals by providing weapons more commensurate with regional requirements. Examples are the sale of Jang Bogo/Nagapasa-class submarines to Indonesia and K9 Thunder/Vajra-T self-propelled howitzers to India. South Korea’s success as a second-tier producer is because it can provide cost-effective, rugged, and operationally relevant weapons fashioned to the specific requirements of regional powers.
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