Songrim Aircraft Corporation
 Logo adopted in 2000. Gomun characters are common in logos and insignia in Menghe. | |
| State-owned | |
| Industry | Defense |
| Predecessor | Songrim Aviation Design Bureau |
| Founded | March 19, 1968 |
| Founder | Song Tae-il and Rim Jin-sŏn |
| Headquarters | Insŏng, West Chŏllo , |
Number of employees | 22,000 (2019) |
Songrim Aircraft Corporation (Menghean: 송림 항공기 공업 / 松林航空機工業, Songrim Hanggonggi Gongŏb) is a Menghean state-owned enterprise which specializes in the design and construction of military combat aircraft. Until 1998 it was known as the Songrim Aviation Design Bureau. Its headquarters are located in the southern city of Insŏng.
In contrast to Daesŭngri, Menghe's other leading military aircraft designer, Songrim specializes in heavier combat aircraft. Originally it manufactured mainly ground-attack aircraft, but since the 1970s it has also produced interceptors and air superiority fighters, including the fifth-generation Songrim SR-12.
History
The Songrim Aviation Design Bureau was established in 1968 to oversee the modification of the Letnian Orlov Or-7 for domestic manufacture. It was named for the surnames of its two lead designers, Song Tae-il and Rim Jin-sŏn, who had both studied aeronautics overseas in Letnia. The resulting portmanteau, Songrim, can also be read as "pine forest."
The name was originally meant to reference Songrim's planned factory in Girim province, a base of Communist operations during the Menghean War of Liberation. Before the year was up, the government of the DPRM had already concluded that the northeast was too exposed to bombers based in Hanhae and Dayashina, and ordered that the new factory be built in Chŏllo province.
Songrim's early projects consisted of manufacturing ground-attack aircraft licensed from Letnia, namely the Or-7 (SR-3) and Or-24 (SR-6. Its engineers were given a few exclusive visits to Orlov's design center and assembly line, and built up a large team of talented engineers, but most of their work consisted of making minor changes to foreign blueprints in accordance with the Army's requirements. The bureau's first independent design project, the SR-7 interceptor, was plagued with delays, and even when it did enter service, its performance came as a disappointment to most Army leaders. By 1998, Songrim had returned to largely imitative work, producing the Glasic International Aircraft Eagle under license as the Songrim SR-8.
Only in the early 2000s would Songrim attempt a unique design project, this time with the daunting task of producing Menghe's first fifth-generation jet fighter. The project proceeded slowly at first, but Songrim was able to draw on extensive experience gained from the SR-7 and SR-8 projects, as well as a steadily growing pool of talent drawn from the private sector. The resulting JG-S fighter program would encounter repeated delays and hurdles during its development, but by 2019 it culminated in the Songrim SR-12, a genuinely indigenous design which thus far appears to hold great potential. Ironically, although Daesŭngri had more experience with indigenous-design fighters, its DS-13 5th-gen program encountered even more severe problems due to the designers' contradictory demands, and as of 2019 Daesŭngri has yet to produce a flyable DS-13 prototype.
Organization
Like Daesŭngri, Songrim is organized as a state-owned corporation with a national-defense orientation. It was separated from the Ministry of National Defense in 1999, as part of a broader restructuring effort intended to clarify the line between state-owned corporations and government agencies. In this new configuration, it has separate financial accounts from the national government, but lacks a free-market profit mandate, and is given annual subsidies to meet its operating costs.
Today Songrim operates only a single production center, the Rogang Aircraft Factory. It is located on the outskirts of Insŏng. The production facilities were expanded in the 2000s to meet rising MoND orders, with 24 SR-8 fighters completed each year on average between 2007 and 2018. Production is currently shifting toward the SR-12, which is more expensive and will likely be produced in smaller numbers.
- Songrim Aircraft Corporation
- Songrim Military Aircraft Design Center
- Songrim Aircraft Production Group
- Rogang Aircraft Factory
Products
Attack aircraft
Fighters