Enhancing Safety Across The Entire Lifecycle of Weapon Systems: A Comprehensive Study

Weapon systems are at the core of each country's defense projects, and active research is being conducted to prepare for future warfare. As the complexity and sophistication of weapon systems increase, so do the associated risk factors. Therefore, it is crucial to safely manage these risks throughout the entire life cycle of weapon systems. This study aimed to develop methods to enhance safety across the entire lifecycle of weapon systems. To achieve this, we analyzed laws, regulations, and systems of civilian sectors and advanced countries regarding life cycle management through literature research and compared these with our military's weapon system life cycle management. The study yielded the following improvement measures for enhancing the safety of our military's weapon systems throughout their life cycle. First, it is necessary to manage not only the economy and efficiency but also safety throughout all stages of the weapon system lifecycle, including demand, acquisition, operation and maintenance, and disposal. This requires improvements in laws and administrative regulations. Second, an integrated RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety) safety indicator should be developed and applied. Third, essential system safety activities tailored to our military's weapon system stages should be established throughout the life cycle, referencing the system safety procedures currently applied by the U.S. and Swedish militaries. This study is significant in that it lays the institutional foundation for improving safety throughout the entire lifecycle of weapon systems. Future research should focus on case studies of actual applications based on these findings and economic evaluations.