LOC12:45
09:45 GMT
TOKYO, Sept 8 (KUNA) -- South Korea opened a new aircraft testing center
Monday where its military will be able to measure the operational capabilities
of aircraft and armored vehicles in extreme weather, Seoul's media reported.
The KRW 100-billion (USD 91.2 million) facility is the second largest of
its kind in the world after the United States, Yonhap News Agency said.
Britain, Japan, and France are the only other countries to have an anechoic
chamber, it added.
The 188,000-square-meter facility in the city of Seosan, 150 kilometers
from Seoul, is complete with a climatic chamber for testing under different
weather conditions, and an anechoic chamber where the equipment will be
checked for resistance to various electric waves, according to the report.
The facility was built jointly by the Agency for Defense Development and US
aircraft manufacturer Boeing as part of an offset program related to Seoul's
purchase of 40 F-15K fighter jets, it said.
Boeing provided some USD 35 million worth of equipment for the climatic and
anechoic chambers, it noted.
Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee, attending the opening ceremony, noted the
significance of the new testing center, saying it will allow the independent
development of key weapons systems.
"Freedom and peace can only be enjoyed when one has the means to defend
oneself, and history has proven that such means cannot be secured by a sheer
volume of troops or equipment," Lee said, emphasizing defense technology as
determinant of national power.
Another 297,000-square-meters of testing space will be added by 2015 with
five new facilities, including an electromagnetic pulse test center and new
radar cross section test center to gauge stealth capabilities, the news agency
said. (end)
mk.ris
KUNA 081245 Sep 08NNNN