A Patriot surface-to-air missile is launched at a simulated target during a live-fire missile interception exercise over the Yellow Sea on Nov. 6, 2024. YONHAPKorean missile manufacturers are cautiously approaching whether to participate in the U.S. Army's newly opened test range opportunities, citing cost and potential logistical complications.
The U.S. Army has opened five missile test ranges to private and allied companies, opening up Korean defense firms a way past a certification bottleneck that has long slowed their entry into the U.S. market. The measure comes as reports arise of munitions quickly depleting due to the Iran war, making Korea's participation in the test range a part of the effort to replenish weapons through allied nations.
Announced Friday by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll at Camp Grayling in Michigan, the change covers four domestic ranges and one in Morocco, open to companies firing interceptor missiles they developed with their own money. An online reservation portal went live the same day, with access pledged within 30 days of a request. Driscoll said he hopes allied companies will use the ranges too.
What changed?
The bottleneck the change addresses is real. Companies have waited up to a year and a half for a testing slot, mostly at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. “It can take 12 to 18 months for a company that wants to go test the thing that can make a soldier's life better,” Driscoll said. “That is not sufficient.”
Domestic sites now open are Camp Grayling, Camp Shelby in Mississippi, Dugway Proving Ground in Utah and West Cibola, an unused portion of Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, said Maj. Gen. Patrick Gaydon of Army Test and Evaluation Command. The international site is a multidomain training area in Morocco, where a startup called Covenant Industries has already fired its Anthem missile.
For Korea, the appeal is physical. The country lacks suitable sites for testing ground firepower systems and missiles, and the constraints are severe enough that Korean firms already travel abroad to test, said Choi Gi-il, a professor of military studies at Sangji University. Korean 155-millimeter extended-range ammunition had to be tested in Israel because no domestic range could take it, he said, at a cost in the tens of billions of won.
“K-defense gets a great deal of spotlight in the global market, but the test and evaluation process involves many difficulties and limitations,” Choi said. “By opening these test ranges to allies, the United States has given us an option we did not have.”
The reservation website for the test range, operated by the U.S. Army SCREEN CAPTURENot sold?
That option has a price, which is where the enthusiasm thins. Korean reporting pointed to LIG D&A, which renamed itself from LIG Nex1 in March, and its Bigung guided rocket and Cheongung II air defense system, along with Hanwha Aerospace's guided weapons, as candidates to use the ranges. Those are inferences from Driscoll's expression of hope, as no Army statement has named Korean companies.
Asked whether it will apply, LIG D&A said it is “not in a position” to say.
“Even between allies, there are bound to be procedures involved or getting approval from the U.S. government,” said an LIG D&A spokesperson. “If the specific terms such as costs were too steep, then we wouldn't be able to go through with [the test].”
The reservations run deeper than price. The Army has attached no procurement incentive, no undertaking that strong performers will be considered for adoption. Korea has its own firing ranges. And moving a weapon onto an U.S. range requires export procedures and U.S. government permission even between allies, which the official described as more complicated than the announcement suggests.
There is also what leaves the country with a missile. Firing a weapon on a foreign range exposes sensitive test data and technical information, which argues for selective use, said Jang Won-joon, an associate professor specializing in the defense industry at Jeonbuk National University. He would confine it to essential tests with no domestic alternative, and to the testing and certification required to enter U.S. military procurement.
“The opening is a new opportunity,” Jang said, “but given the security concerns around sensitive test data and technical information, firms need to use it selectively.”
LIG D&A's medium-range surface-to-air missile, the Cheongung, is displayed at the Agency for Defense Development in 2020. YONHAPWhy the door has opened
If Korean firms are weighing the offer carefully, Washington had reasons of its own to make it. The timing is scarcity, not generosity.
A CSIS analysis published on July 27 by Mark Cancian and Chris Park found Patriot inventories now under 1,000 and Thaad stockpiles at about 250 after the war with Iran. Secondary accounts citing the analysis put the Patriot's fall at 2,330, to between 759 and 827 missiles, and Thaad dropping 452 to between 234 and 278.
“Diminished stockpiles may force the United States and its coalition partners to take more risks with interceptions,” the authors wrote, noting no good alternatives exist because Navy ships carrying standard missiles are generally too far away. Rebuilding would take more than three years.
CNN, citing sources familiar with an internal report, put Thaad depletion at nearly four-fifths, a figure U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disputed.
Choi reads the opening against that shortfall, arguing Korean manufacturing capacity gives Washington reason to keep allied suppliers close. “It can be a win-win structure,” he said.
A surface-to-air missile is fired from a Cheongung-II air defense system during live-fire drills in an unspecified western coastal area in 2024. YONHAPThere indeed have been past arrangements between the U.S Army and Korean defense manufacturers.
The U.S. Army announced an enhanced use lease to Hanwha Defense USA at Pine Bluff Arsenal, Jefferson County, Arkansas on Jan. 28. The lease agreement used underutilized Army property, with proceeds to be reinvested into infrastructure. Hanwha plans to invest roughly $1.3 billion and create about 200 skilled jobs.
“These days, you can easily secure all the data you need through things like AI simulations,” said a defense analyst on the condition of anonymity. “The real issue is that our country has extremely limited testing grounds.”
“For example, the long-range air-to-air missile project, since the range on those is hundreds of kilometers it’s really difficult to test them here in Korea,” he continued. “If a missile were to fall mid-flight and cause damage to a civilian area, the entire country and the media would go absolutely haywire.”
“The truth is, there’s simply nowhere to test them. So, testing in the U.S. is definitely the better option.”
Two Cheongung-II medium-range surface-to-air missile systems are used during a drill in Korea in this undated stock photo JOONGANG PHOTOThe payoff vs. the pay-in
For Korean firms, the prize is real. Cheongung II, deployed in the UAE, intercepted Iranian ballistic missiles in March, and Bigung passed a U.S. comparative test in 2024. Combat-proven and U.S.-verified is stronger than either alone.
But the Army will not subsidize travel, and Driscoll said the intent is not to bring in companies not far enough along in their funding.
It is worth comparing to what Korean industry is being asked to pay elsewhere. In Spain, Hanwha Aerospace is buying European entry with technology and potentially design authority. In the United States, the currency is cash and test data. Two markets, two admission prices, and the same question underneath both: How much value stays in Korea once the door is open?