Ottawa’s bid underscores how long-term naval programs allow buyers to extract wide-ranging economic concessions

The ROKS Shin Chae-ho, the last of South Korea’s Jangbogo-III (KSS-III) class Batch I submarines on duty and the ROK-Canada summit in Oct. 2025 | Image: ROK Defense Acquisition Program Administration (April 4, 2024), Blue House (Oct. 30, 2025), edited by Korea Pro

South Korea’s unusually expansive political and industrial mobilization behind its bid for Canada’s next-generation submarine program reflects a structural shift in how top-tier submarine exports are negotiated, as buyer leverage at scale increasingly forces exporters to absorb civilian economic commitments as the price of strategic entry.

The Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP) has emerged as a revealing test case for this dynamic. Far from a conventional defense procurement, the program has become a vehicle through which Ottawa is seeking to align naval capability, long-term sustainment, alliance politics and domestic industrial policy within a single negotiating framework.

South Korea’s unusually expansive political and industrial mobilization behind its bid for Canada’s next-generation submarine program reflects a structural shift in how top-tier submarine exports are negotiated, as buyer leverage at scale increasingly forces exporters to absorb civilian economic commitments as the price of strategic entry.

The Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP) has emerged as a revealing test case for this dynamic. Far from a conventional defense procurement, the program has become a vehicle through which Ottawa is seeking to align naval capability, long-term sustainment, alliance politics and domestic industrial policy within a single negotiating framework.

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