$800 Flash Drive that Shook South Korea’s Defense Procurement

The Worst Defense Procurement Corruption: The $800 flash drive
In reality, it’s far from corruption
Prejudices against defense suppliers need to be discarded

The military should be a group that earns the trust of the people. Suppose a group entrusted with the government-sanctioned exercise of force, protecting most of society’s members and defending the nation’s territory, cannot be trusted. What could be a more serious problem? However, the people of South Korea do not trust the military for various reasons.

There may be several reasons, such as injustices within the military and a closed group atmosphere, but the biggest reason may be defense procurement corruption. Do you remember the flash drive case, considered the most representative example? The case, known for purchasing a 3GB flash drive for $800, is said to be far from actual corruption. Let’s find out more about this.

$7.6 Billion to replace beds?
It’s fatal to maintaining combat power

Suppose there’s a most famous case in defense procurement corruption. In that case, it might be the case where an additional $2.2 Billion was requested on top of a budget of $5.7 Billion for a 10-year long-term interior unit modernization project, including replacing all soldiers’ beds. For reference, if the project had proceeded as originally planned, even building new barracks and installing new beds would have cost only about $3.4 Billion. The fact that $7.6 Billion is 25% of the annual defense budget shows how serious defense procurement corruption was at the time.

Defense procurement corruption is not just an act that creates a hole in the annual defense budget. The interior unit is where soldiers recover their combat power through rest, and corruption related to this place can be seen as an act that harms the military’s combat power. Moreover, how can it be said that supplying substandard parts or completely different items does not break the military’s combat power?

The $800 flash drive case in 2011
was not defense procurement corruption

However, not all cases of purchasing specific equipment at high prices are defense procurement corruption. The $800 4GB flash drive case that became controversial in 2011 is an example, and people misunderstood this USB as the same one available on the market.

In 2004, when this flash drive was being developed, the price of a 1GB flash drive was as high as $250 in the market, and the flash drive was made to military specifications to operate in high and low temperatures, considering that artillerymen would use it. Therefore, while the unit price was already relatively high, the production quantity was only 660, making it impossible to reduce costs, which is why the price of $800 was derived.

The military’s passive attitude is also a problem

From the military’s perspective, this is a very unfair situation. Still, the military’s behavior of ignoring defense procurement corruption so far, and the attitude of simply ‘not doing anything’ when an unfair incident occurs, exacerbate the problem and increase the resulting criticism. Therefore, the military needs to have an apparent attitude, acknowledging what is unjust and apologizing for what is wrong.