Defense acquisition is vulnerable to corruption around the world, largely due to collusive links between the military and contractors. Korea is no exception, and we are accustomed to news reports about corruption involving procurement of arms and military equipment.

Nevertheless, the seemingly endless revelations about defective weapons during the parliamentary audit have left us speechless.

The situation is truly grave ― so many arms or parts, ranging from rifles to naval vessels, are “defective, out of order, outdated or substandard” that it seems that there are few weapons in our military that are free from problems.

One prime example is the 3,500-ton Navy salvage ship Tongyeong, which was built at a cost of 160 billion won. It was christened in 2012, but the Navy refused to take the delivery, citing problems with its sonar system and a remotely operated vehicle for underwater operations.

Few knew that these problems had been forcing the ship, built in the wake of the North Korean torpedo attack on the Cheonan corvette in the West Sea in 2010, to remain in the dock of a shipbuilder, not at a naval base, until the Sewol ferry sank in April. Many listened in disbelief to officials’ explanations that the ship could not participate in the Sewol search and rescue operations because its sonar system and underwater vehicle did not work properly.

Now we know the inconceivable ― the problem with the sonar system stemmed from corruption. An assessment paper on the ship’s hull-mounted sonar system provided by a U.S. company was fabricated by a corrupt colonel.

It is more than outrageous that the one installed on the Tongyeong is an outmoded system that should have cost no more than 200 million won, but for which the procurement agency paid 4.1 billion won.

The parliamentary audit also found that radar systems in the Navy’s speedboats and frigates had malfunctioned 80 times during the past 4 1/2 years. The 900 billion won destroyer Yulgok has a serious problem with one of its torpedo defenses ― 18 out of its 24 antitorpedo decoys were inoperable because they were rusted by seawater.

This is the state of our Navy, which defends our territorial waters including the West Sea, where South and North Korean naval forces often clash with each other, most recently on Oct. 7.

The problems are not limited to the Navy. Most of the Army’s antitank weapons are so outdated that they are not capable of destroying the newest North Korean tanks. The 20 mm Vulcan antiaircraft guns are useless at night because night-vision devices for land targets, not aerial ones, were mounted onto them. There are no less serious problems with weapons such as the K-11 rifles, K-2 tanks and K-21 armored vehicles.

Put simply, many of the weapons used by our military are unsuitable for combat and war.

There is no doubt that corruption and lax discipline are to blame. In the case of the Tongyeong, the officer who fabricated the evaluation paper for its sonar system moved to a company that supplied parts to the salvage vessel after his retirement from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration. Had he not been arrested for his involvement in the case, he would have been able to maintain the same collusive connections with his former colleagues at the agency.

Fighting corruption in defense procurement should start with putting an end to revolving-door appointments like this and putting the DAPA under constant scrutiny and more frequent audits. This requires the urgent attention of the commander-in-chief.