South Korea Defense Market Data: Budget Allocations, Fleet Size and Program Forecasts, 2026-2035

South Korea’s defense expenditure increased from $42.3 billion in 2022 to $47.2 billion in 2026, which reflected a CAGR of 2.8% during 2022–26. The collapse of the peace process in June 2020 has compelled South Korea to reinforce its defense posture, as it is likely to result in the North Korean regime resuming its hostile posture against South Korea. The country's defense budget is anticipated to increase from $48.4 billion in 2027 to $56.3 billion in 2031, reflecting a robust CAGR of 3.9%. The South Korean acquisition budget is also anticipated to grow from $10.4 billion in 2027 to $12.4 billion in 2030, reflecting a CAGR of 4.5% over 2027–31.

Against this backdrop, South Korea's acquisition expenditure is anticipated to grow from $10.1 billion in 2022 to reach $12.4 billion in 2031. However, the South Korean RDT&E expenditure is anticipated to be driven by massive investments in research & development initiatives to develop advanced defense technologies and capabilities domestically and demonstrate substantial growth of 4.4%, rising from $5.3 billion in 2027 to reach $6 billion in 2027.

Stay ahead in the aerospace and defense market with an interactive, Excel-based country intelligence workbook from GlobalData. This ready-to-use workbook features intuitive pivots and dashboards that allow users to analyze defense spending, procurement programs, platform inventories, and market trends across key segments within South Korea. Easily slice and filter data, explore historical patterns and long-term forecasts, benchmark suppliers, and support strategic planning with transparent, analyst-curated insights through 2035.
South Korea Defense Market Data report provides –
Defense Budget Allocations: The interactive excel sheet allows the user to analyze total defense expenditure with flexible filters across major budget heads, including Acquisitions, RDT&E, Infrastructure, Personnel, and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) expenditures. Users can further enhance analysis by viewing contextual indicators such as exchange rates, real and nominal GDP, population, defense spending as a percentage of GDP, and defense budget per capita.
Defense Program Forecasts: The interactive Excel sheet allows the user to explore forecast spending across defense sectors and sub-sectors, with the ability to drill down to individual programs and suppliers. Interactive filters enable users to assess funding priorities, program pipelines, and supplier exposure within the country’s defense ecosystem.
Fleet Size: The interactive excel sheet allows the user to evaluate current and future equipment inventories by filtering data on equipment variants, acquisition timelines, current unit counts, annual fleet maintenance costs, manufacturers, and countries of origin. The workbook also provides forward-looking indicators such as projected retirement years, replacement probabilities, and service life extension likelihoods, offering clear visibility into modernization and replacement opportunities.
Two interactive visualization sheets with charts and graphs provide expert insights, enabling users to explore quantitative trends within the selected aerospace and defense market. The visualization sheets are supported by detailed underlying datasets covering Defense Budget Allocations, Fleet Size and Platform Analysis, and Defense Program Forecasts

Scope

This Excel deliverable gives important, expert insight you won’t find in any other source. The interactive model illustrates qualitative and quantitative trends within the specified market. Various sections covered in the workbook are as follows –

Interactive Visualizations: Two interactive dashboard sheets featuring charts and graphs that enable rapid analysis of qualitative and quantitative trends across the selected aerospace and defense market.

Defense Budget Allocations: Detailed coverage of total defense expenditure with breakdowns across acquisitions, RDT&E, infrastructure, personnel, operations and maintenance (O&M), and other spending categories, supported by key macroeconomic and contextual indicators.

Defense Program Forecasts: Forecast analysis of defense spending by sector, sub-sector, program, and supplier, enabling evaluation of procurement priorities, funding pipelines, and competitive positioning within the country.

Fleet Size and Platform Inventory: Comprehensive assessment of military equipment inventories, including platform variants, acquisition timelines, current unit counts, manufacturers, country of origin, maintenance costs, and projected retirement, replacement, and service life extension indicators.

Sources: Data compiled from a wide range of authoritative public and proprietary sources, including government budgets, defense ministries, armed forces disclosures, international organizations, industry reports, and GlobalData’s internal databases.

Key Highlights

Drivers: Defense modernization is driven by need to mantain of robust contingency response capabilities due to escalating threat from China and North Korea and alao mantain robust expeditionary warfare, logistics and sealift domestic design and development capabilities to support allies will drive defense capability enhancement expenditure.

Top 3 Sectors: Transport & Utility Helicopter, Turbofan engine, USV, Turboshaft engines, transport Aircraft, Training and Light Attack Aircraft, UUV and Turboprop

Top Country of Origin of Existing Fleet: Indigenous, United States, Canada, Russia and Switzerland

Reasons to Buy

Identify high-growth investment and procurement opportunities by analyzing historical data and long-term trends in the South Korea defense market across budget categories, sectors, and platforms through 2035.

Track and benchmark defense budget allocations across acquisitions, RDT&E, personnel, infrastructure, and O&M, supported by macroeconomic indicators such as GDP, population, and defense spending as a percentage of GDP.

Assess program-level funding priorities and pipelines by drilling down into defense programs by sector, sub-sector, and supplier, enabling evaluation of funding stability, growth potential, and competitive exposure.

Evaluate fleet modernization and replacement opportunities using detailed platform-level data covering current inventories, acquisition timelines, maintenance costs, projected retirements, and replacement and service life extension probabilities.

Strengthen competitive and supplier intelligence through comparative analysis of manufacturers, country of origin, and supplier participation across key defense programs and platforms.

Save time and improve decision-making efficiency with a ready-to-use, interactive Excel workbook featuring intuitive pivots and dashboards that allow rapid filtering, customization, and scenario exploration without the need for additional modeling.