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Dec. 25 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s defense procurement agency is accelerating efforts to develop and certify defense-grade semiconductors, warning that reliance on foreign supply chains for critical chips could delay weapons deployment and weaken long-term competitiveness in arms exports.

Modern weapon systems increasingly depend on semiconductors for core functions including missile guidance and navigation, radar detection and tracking, encrypted military communications and autonomous operation in drones and unmanned platforms, defense officials and industry experts say.

Analysts say dependence on overseas sources for such components creates vulnerabilities that go beyond cost. If access is disrupted by export controls, manufacturing changes or supply discontinuation, military programs can face delays because defense-grade parts often require retesting and recertification even after minor design or packaging changes.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said it launched a task force in January 2024 to prepare for a Defense Semiconductor Center and has been building a roadmap for project planning and management along with a dedicated reliability evaluation and certification function, according to a notice posted on the government innovation portal.

In a December policy briefing, the agency said it began research and development projects tied to defense semiconductors, including high-power radio-frequency components for radars and semiconductors for space communications.

Defense semiconductor applications span a growing set of systems, including transmit-receive modules for active electronically scanned array radars, processing chips for synthetic aperture radar on unmanned aerial vehicles, satellite communications components for small satellites and tactical-grade inertial sensors, analysts said.

DAPA has pursued center establishment in parallel with research programs aimed at building a domestic ecosystem. The agency said it selected five core technology projects in May, with four expected to begin within the year. In December, it announced the start of projects including space semiconductors for small satellite communications, tactical-grade gyro sensors, chips for unmanned aerial vehicle synthetic aperture radar and chips for active electronically scanned array radars, emphasizing a goal of reducing reliance on foreign technology.

The agency also held a defense semiconductor development forum in November that brought together government officials, industry and researchers, according to the report.

Experts said the next hurdles are less about initial research and more about building an ecosystem that can certify reliability and support sustained production.

Defense-grade semiconductors must perform under extreme conditions including temperature swings, vibration, shock, electromagnetic exposure and long storage periods, requiring testing infrastructure and standards that differ from civilian certification methods.

Analysts also said South Korea will need an end-to-end supply chain covering design, manufacturing, packaging and verification. Because defense chips are often produced in small volumes across multiple specialized variants, they can be deprioritized on commercial foundry and packaging lines unless trusted production capacity is secured.

Specialized investment will also be needed in areas such as compound semiconductors and radiation-hardened components used in radars, electronic warfare systems and satellites, the report said.

To ensure research translates into deployment, experts said development should be structured around early joint design involving military users, system integrators and component makers.

Analysts said defense semiconductors should be treated as national security infrastructure that affects the speed of force deployment, operational sustainability and export reliability, rather than as an optional industrial policy goal.

– Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Dec. 19 (UPI) — Sales of previously owned homes rose 0.5% in November from October, reflecting a slowdown, due to high mortgage rates, high prices and less supply.

Home sales were 1% lower than November 2024, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales came in at an annualized rate of 4.13 million units.

The numbers are based on closings, so contracts may have been signed in the preceding months when rates dipped slightly.

Supply fell in November after rising most of the year. The association said there were 1.43 million homes for sale at the end of the month, which is down 5.9% from October, but up 7.5 percent year-over-year.

That’s a 4.2-month supply. A six-month supply is considered balanced between buyer and seller.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate was 6.24%, down from 6.25% in October and 6.81% from a year ago, showing slow change in rates.

The median existing-home price for all housing types was $409,200, up 1.2% from a year ago.

The median time on the market for properties was 36 days, up from 34 days last month and 32 in November 2024.

“Existing-home sales increased for the third straight month due to lower mortgage rates this autumn,” said the Association of Realtors’ Chief Economist Lawrence Yun in a statement. “However, inventory growth is beginning to stall. With distressed property sales at historic lows and housing wealth at an all-time high, homeowners are in no rush to list their properties during the winter months.”

Month-over-month sales increased in the Northeast and South, showed no change in the West, and fell in the Midwest. Year-over-year sales showed no change in the Northeast and South, and decreased in the Midwest and West.

“Wage growth is outpacing home price gains, which improves housing affordability. Still, future affordability could be hampered if housing supply fails to keep pace with demand,” Yun said. “As has been the case throughout the year, single-family home sales outperformed condominium sales in November. The typical price of a sold condo was 13.5% lower than the typical price of a single-family home. However, the purchase price does not include the condominium association fees, which are rising and making these purchases more expensive.”

Spain’s government has fined San Francisco’s Airbnb $75 million for advertising unlicensed tourist rentals, officials said Monday.

The move is the latest government action in Spain against short-term rental companies such as Airbnb and Booking.com as the country grapples with a housing affordability problem, particularly in city centers.

The consumer rights ministry said the rentals didn’t include license numbers — a requirement in many regions in Spain — or listed license numbers that didn’t match what authorities had. Others had incorrect information about hosts, it said.

Airbnb said that it plans to challenge the fine in court.

The company said it was working with Spanish authorities to comply with a new national registration system for short-term rentals, and that more than 70,000 listings on the platform had added a registration number since January.

Spain’s leftist government and many Spaniards across the political spectrum see short-term rental companies as bearing responsibility for driving up housing costs.

The nation on the Iberian Peninsula is one of the world’s most visited countries and short-term holiday rentals have cut into many cities’ stretched housing supply.

“There are thousands of families living on the edge because of the housing crisis, while a few enrich themselves with business models that evict people from their homes,” Spain’s consumer rights minister, Pablo Bustinduy, said Monday in a statement.

In May, the consumer rights ministry ordered Airbnb to take down roughly 65,000 listings because of rule violations.

In 2024, Spain’s anti-trust watchdog fined Booking.com $448 million, saying the online travel company had abused its dominant market position in the country during the previous five years.

Local authorities in Barcelona have said they plan to phase out all of the 10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by 2028 to safeguard the housing supply for residents.