CN-235 takes flight as ADEX 2025 lifts Korea’s defense industry ambitions

The roar of an aircraft engine, even a distant one, is a sound that vibrates through the soles of your shoes and straight into your chest. There is nothing subtle about it. Standing on the tarmac at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam just south of the capital, that noise was the constant, visceral backdrop to the world of high-stakes negotiations. My assignment was to witness firsthand Korea’s defense industry gaining momentum. Before boarding a CN-235 transport aircraft for a demonstration flight, I sensed the event’s inherent duality: The high-stakes trade show, centered on some of the most visceral and thrilling machinery, mirrored the vitality of the sprawling Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) being held in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province north of Seoul. This year’s ADEX coincides with Korea’s defense exports continuing their dramatic, multi-billion-dollar surge. The biennial event shattered previous records, attracting 600 companies from 35 countries to KINTEX in Goyang. The largest edition in its history, the expo’s palpable energy signaled that Korea was not mWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times