S. Korea Develops 1,000-KM Cruise Missile

Lunatik

Active member
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

South Korea has developed a cruise missile with a range of 1,000 kilometers that can reach as far as Beijing and Tokyo, as well as hit any target in North Korea, a report said Tuesday.

``The Army's missile command possesses the cruise missile with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers. That missile is an upgraded variant of the Hyunmoo missile,'' a military source was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying.

The Hyunmoo is a ballistic missile, developed by the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD), with a range of 180-300 kilometers.

The source, however, declined to comment on whether or not the indigenous cruise missile has been deployed in the field or not, it reported.

On Monday, Maj. Gen. Jung In-koo, chief of the Army's Guided Missile Command, hinted that his command is deploying the cruise missile, saying it is powered by liquid fuel.

Last year, a government official revealed that the military successfully tested the cruise missile. The missile can hit targets with a margin of error of plus or minus five meters aided by a Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) system, he said on condition of anonymity.

The Navy's KDX-III Aegis-equipped destroyers will carry the missiles, the official said, adding the ADD was also developing cruise missiles with a range of 1,500 kilometers.

The Navy launched its first 7,600-ton Aegis destroyer, ``Sejong the Great,'' in May, taking a big step toward developing a blue-water naval force. Two more Aegis destroyers will be commissioned in 2010 and 2012.

Reports said the military already has an advanced ship-to-surface ``Chonryong'' cruise missile with a range of 500 kilometers.

South Korea has been reluctant to disclose the development of the cruise missiles so as not to provoke tensions with China and Japan.

Under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), South Korea is only allowed to build ballistic missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers and a 500 kilogram maximum payload. But the MTCR only applies to high-velocity, free flight ballistic missiles, excluding the slower, surface-skimming cruise weapons.

The MTCR is an informal and voluntary association of countries which share the goal of non-proliferation of unmanned delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction, and seek to coordinate national export licensing efforts to prevent their proliferation.

The cruise missile, dubbed a ``flying bomb,'' is a guided missile which uses a lifting wing and most often a jet propulsion system to allow sustained flight. The self-navigating cruise missile travels at supersonic or high subsonic speeds. It flies in a non-ballistic very low altitude trajectory to avoid radar detection.

Currently, nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Israel, possess long-range cruise missiles with a range of more than 500 kilometers.

Pyongyang is believed to have more than 600 Scud and Rodong missiles that can cover South Korea and Japan. The Scuds, or Russian R-11 series missiles, have a range of 130-700 kilometers.

The latest version of the Rodong missile, a further development of the Scud, has an estimated 2,000-kilometer range.

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http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2007/10/205_12400.html
 
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Yeap, and the technology and know-how have been available in South Korea for quite some time. These new missiles will be a great addition to the Sejong the Great class. Awesome looking ship.
 
Who cares? Most of Korea's weapons designs are based on technology bought from companies and countries more familiar with the systems.
The above destroyer is fitted for the AEGIS system and those ships tend to look kinda similar anyway.

South Korea with a blue water navy... for what I can't imagine.
 
Who cares? Most of Korea's weapons designs are based on technology bought from companies and countries more familiar with the systems.
The above destroyer is fitted for the AEGIS system and those ships tend to look kinda similar anyway.

South Korea with a blue water navy... for what I can't imagine.

Once of the great things about Aegis is integration with other assets in the area. I won't go into details because that would be a Naughty Thing to do security-wise, but coupled with US and Japanese Aegis assets, these would probably make pretty good TBM defense if fitted with the proper missiles.
 
Bigotry aside, it makes technical sense. Again I won't go into too much detail but from what I understand, if both the Japanese and Koreans are linked with the US, they're linked with each other.
 
It's not really bigotry. It's called a national security matter.
You do realize that the Japanese are asserting territorial claims inside Korean waters which include a small island don't you? That and the Japanese have AEGIS as well. If they ever go to battle, they will fight each other.
Those two AEGIS fleets won't be linked.
Very rarely do countries link their computer software with their enemies.
 
Well done Korea. That must be good for their reputation in Asia.

I think the only country that poor in missile tech. compared to its military power is Turkey. We are not experienced enough in missile technology. But we need to be. Because we have a neighbour has missiles about 3000 kms range, called Shahab's. They developed em' with the support of Russia. And we need to spend more on missile tech.
 
South Korea isn't only becoming a stronger and stronger nation militarily, it's also emerging as a major weapons exporter! I don't know about the other customers, but things that Korea has sold to Turkey include self propelled howitzers, technology to produce SPHs indigenously in Turkey, advanced trainer aircraft, various electronics, all kinds of ammo and XK-2 along with its technology/know-how, which will be used in the development of Turkey's own semi-indigenous MBT! There's a huge chance that the Dokdo class will soon be selected in the Turkish LPD tender as well. Apparently Korea's #1 defense customer is now Turkey, and Korea is seen as a strategic partner by the Turks.

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And I agree with Ortouch that Turkey should invest in missile R&D. No one wants Iran to be the only guy in the neighborhood with quite capable SRBMs/MRBMs.
 
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You can thank your grandfathers before you who fought so well in Korea and the fact that Turkey asked for nothing in return.
South Korea's new weapons systems are as good as they get (except for the fighter planes) and you're lucky to be buying them along with the technology to build them and develop from them at home.
 
We really are grateful to be friends/allies with the Koreans, who are said to be our distant Altaic cousins from Central Asia. 8)

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(except for the fighter planes)
I hear a new Korean stealth fighter is currently being designed/developed. Do you know anything about it 13th?
 
Wouldn't hold my breath.
If it looks anything like the above it'll probably get a name like "Baby Raptor" or something... like the first K1 MBT, which looked like a smaller M1A1 and got dubbed the "Baby Abrams."
The reason for these developments is so that South Korea gains a know how in producing the latest weapons in case of poor relations with any primary weapons manufacturing/supplying country.
Let's hope the guys behind it keep the airplane mission specific.
The other thing is, what aircraft are they going to throw on the new Amphibious Assault Ships? For now it'll be helicopters only but it can't stay that way forever.

On second thought, might be friggin' useless. We have to use our damned resources for developing good UAVs.
Personally I think I see things going this way: For defensive purposes, manned interceptors will probably be needed to compliment the UAV fleet. Strategic bombing (bombing factories, bridges, etc.) should be done entirely of UAVs operating out of a preprogrammed flight plan. Surveillance will depend on the mission I guess. Interceptors will need to be controlled I reckon because a flaw in the programming might mean it'll start shooting down friendlies without end. And that would suck.
 
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Pic is that of Japanese stealth fighter project.
Korean is currently experimenting radar absolving material, presumably coating since the article mention that it used on F-4 and F-5 in testing.
 
F-4, really? That's a giant brick of a radar signature usually, it'd be interesting to see how much of a difference RAM makes.
 
I heard about the Russians playing around with "stealth" paint but now Korea too? hmmm...

Last I had heard the Russians were obsessed with this new "Plasma stealth" idea or something where a thin layer of plasma was created on the leading edges or something which makes the plan invisible to radar and is supposedly only a fraction of the cost of the stuff that went into the Raptor. But that was supposed to be on the MiG 1.42 and that's going into production with limited stealth capabilities. Anybody else run into rumors of a aircraft creating a thin layer of plasma across the leading edges of the wings to somehow confuse radar? Perhaps it's something I dreamed up.
 
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