Another South Korean defense firm enters U.S. market

South Korean defense and aerospace company LIG Defense & Aerospace — known as LIG D&A — announced on April 8, 2026, the establishment of its first American subsidiary, LIG Defense U.S. Inc.

The new entity, to be referred to as LIG U.S., will operate as the company’s primary hub for partnership development, technology exchange, and broad market engagement across the United States defense sector. The announcement comes as the first overseas subsidiary established since the company rebranded under the LIG D&A name.

To lead its American engagement, LIG U.S. has brought on retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Rich Brown as senior advisor. Brown previously served as Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet — a role that placed him in charge of fleet operations and the combat readiness of surface warfare assets across the Pacific theater. His background makes him a direct fit for LIG D&A’s stated priority of deepening its relationship with the U.S. Navy and expanding business operations within that service branch.

LIG D&A CEO Shin Ik-hyun addressed the subsidiary’s establishment directly: “The establishment of a U.S. subsidiary is an expression of the efforts LIG D&A has made to establish itself as a true partner in the American defense industry, and of the will that will continue going forward. We will do our best to fulfill our role as a bridgehead for Korea-U.S. defense cooperation.”

The subsidiary’s scope will be wide-ranging. LIG U.S. is tasked with building domestic partnerships, facilitating technology exchange, and pursuing entry into the full breadth of the American defense market. Rather than functioning as a liaison office, it is structured as a legal entity — giving it a stronger foundation for contracting, partnership agreements, and long-term business development than the regional offices LIG D&A has previously operated in Europe, Colombia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

The timing of this move is closely tied to a significant validation LIG D&A secured less than two years ago. In July 2024, during the RIMPAC multinational naval exercise held in Hawaii, the company’s 2.75-inch guided rocket system — known as Bigeye — passed the U.S. Foreign Comparative Testing evaluation program. The FCT program is one of the U.S. government’s formal mechanisms for identifying foreign defense technologies that can meet American military requirements, and passing its evaluation carries substantial credibility. According to LIG D&A, Bigeye’s FCT clearance made the company the first South Korean defense firm to have a precision guided munition technology recognized by the United States in this manner.

The Bigeye is a precision-guided variant of the widely used 2.75-inch rocket — a rocket caliber that has been a staple of U.S. rotary-wing and fixed-wing aviation for decades. By adding a guidance package to a rocket of that caliber, LIG D&A has created a weapon that retains the logistical familiarity and platform compatibility of the baseline 2.75-inch system while adding the accuracy advantages of guided munitions. For naval and air applications where unguided rockets have historically been used, a guided alternative at the same caliber reduces collateral risk and increases effectiveness against moving or time-sensitive targets. The FCT evaluation at RIMPAC — a major multinational exercise that routinely serves as a live demonstration environment for allied and partner nation equipment — provided that validation in a high-visibility operational setting.

LIG D&A’s global posture has been building steadily. The company has maintained regional offices across a range of strategically significant markets, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, and South America. The conversion of key locations from representative offices to incorporated subsidiaries signals a deliberate shift toward deeper, more legally and commercially committed engagement in those markets. The United States, as the single largest defense spender in the world and the anchor of South Korea’s security alliance structure, represents the logical priority for that next step.

South Korea’s defense export sector has expanded considerably over the past several years, with Korean firms securing major contracts across Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific. The bilateral defense relationship between Seoul and Washington has deepened alongside that export growth, and American interest in Korean-origin technologies has been reinforced through exercises like RIMPAC and through the Department of War’s own foreign comparative testing architecture. LIG D&A’s establishment of a permanent, legally incorporated American presence positions the company to pursue not just export sales, but potentially co-development, co-production, and sustainment arrangements that a simple representative office could not support.

With a retired Pacific Fleet surface warfare commander now advising its American operations and a formal legal entity in place to pursue contracts and partnerships, LIG D&A has moved from market interest to institutional commitment in the United States.