SEOUL, October 11 (AJP) - The South Korean army is experiencing a surge of server failures in its front-line commander network, but the government has cut every won the military requested for next year to start replacing the aging hardware.
The Army Tactical Command Information System, known as ATCIS-II, logged about 400 server failures last year, compared with about 10 in 2020, according to military documents on the system’s upgrade project provided by the office of Sung Il-jong, a main opposition People Power Party lawmaker.
The system lets commanders share the battlefield picture in real time, including operational orders and the positions of friendly and enemy forces. It supports them through each step of spotting a threat, deciding how to respond and striking. When a server goes down and that information arrives late, a headquarters can be slower to read the situation of its subordinate units and to pass down orders.
The Army first fielded a computerized tactical command network in 2004. Work on its second upgrade, which replaced both hardware and software, began in December 2018 at a cost of 103 billion won, and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced in June 2020 that the first production units had gone to some front-line corps.
Those servers are now wearing out just as repair options disappear. Maintenance service support for them ended late last year, and critics inside and outside the military have called for steps to ensure broken servers can be restored quickly.
The Ministry of National Defense put 4.998 billion won ($3.7 million) in its 2027 budget request for an upgrade project that covers new servers, wireless LAN and videoconferencing licenses. The full amount was removed when the government drew up its budget proposal, citing "insufficient available funds and consideration of project priorities."
If the money is not restored, the start of the project and the server replacements themselves are likely to slip one after another. The first units to receive the system would be the first to feel the delay.
That puts the Army's I Corps, which guards the western stretch of the border with North Korea north of Seoul, at the front of the line. Its ATCIS servers were fielded in 2019 and 2020 and are scheduled for replacement in 2028 and 2029.
The military said the system faces no direct operational limits for now. A military official said the replacement program swaps servers according to their equipment life cycle so the command system runs reliably, with a total budget of 45 billion won over 2027 to 2030.
"We are cooperating with relevant agencies during the National Assembly's deliberations to secure the budget needed to launch the project next year," the official said.
The government's proposal is now before the National Assembly, which must pass next year's budget by Dec. 2. Under the Constitution, lawmakers cannot raise an expenditure item or add a new one without the government's consent.
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