South Korea’s F-15’s are going to continue to receive needed upgrades:
The Defense Department approved a $2.8 billion, 11-year hybrid contract with Boeing to modify F-15K Slam Eagle fighters for the South Korean air force, the Pentagon announced Friday. The contract calls for “design and development of an integrated suite of aircraft systems” as part of overall modernization of the Slam Eagles, the South Korean variant of the F-15 Eagle fourth-generation fighter.
The U.S. government, which acts as a go-between, paying the contractor and collecting from South Korea, advanced $540 million under the contract as part of the Foreign Military Sales program. Boeing delivered the first of 40 Slam Eagles to Seoul in October 2005. It contracted for another 21 aircraft in April 2008, according to a company news release in April 2012.
You can read more at the link.
It looks like Korea may have found yet another foreign export market for its defense products:
This photo, taken on Feb. 3, 2026, and provided by Hanwha Aerospace Co., shows (from L) Son Jae-il, president and CEO of Hanwha Aerospace; Stephen Fuhr, Canada’s secretary of state for defense procurement; and Philippe Lafortune, Canadian ambassador to South Korea, posing during their visit to the company’s plants in Changwon, about 360 kilometers south of Seoul.
Stephen Fuhr, Canada’s secretary of state for defense procurement, visited Hanwha Aerospace’s plants in Changwon, about 360 kilometers south of Seoul, following a visit to Hanwha Ocean Co.’s shipyard in Geoje the previous day.
The visit was aimed at assessing South Korea’s defense industry capabilities ahead of Canada’s large-scale military modernization program known as the indirect fire modernization (IFM) initiative, the company said.
Canada plans to deploy about 250 infantry fighting vehicles in its army by 2030, six years earlier than originally scheduled.
The Canadian delegation, consisting of about 30 members led by Fuhr, toured production lines for the K9 self-propelled howitzers and the Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), and observed live mobility demonstrations of the K9, the Redback armored fighting vehicle and the K21 infantry fighting vehicle.
During the visit, Hanwha Aerospace proposed an integrated firepower and maneuver solution combining the K9 self-propelled howitzers, the MRLS and the Redback vehicle. The K9 howitzers are currently operated by more than 10 countries, including six members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
You can read more at the link.
It appears that President Lee has found X to be a good way to communicate directly to the public just like President Trump:
President Lee Jae Myung’s increasingly frequent social media posts warning of an end to a tax waiver for multiple homeowners have put his housing agenda — and his direct-to-public messaging — at the center of a widening political debate between rival parties.
The main opposition People Power Party said Monday that Lee’s posts urging homeowners to sell amount to “intimidation.” The party went further, asking whether Lee “learned it” from US President Donald Trump, who has made social media a key tool of governance and used it to deliver major policy announcements.
Following his New Year’s news conference on Jan. 23, Lee has stepped up his use of his official X account to weigh in on major policy issues. The approach aligns with his long-standing communications style: he relied heavily on social media while serving as mayor of Seongnam and governor of Gyeonggi Province.
Housing policy has accounted for the lion’s share of his posts. Lee has posted about the issue 11 times: one post on Jan. 23, four posts on Jan. 25, three on Saturday, one on Sunday and two on Monday.
Lee’s posts largely reaffirm his determination to terminate the exemption for the higher capital gains tax on multihomeowners that began with the inauguration of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration on May 9 in 2022 and was extended each year.
You can read more at the link.
