South Korea Sells Ballistic Missiles!

A year since Poland announced historic arms deals with South Korea deliveries are now underway with some fanfare. In late July a ceremony was held in Hanwha Aerospace’s production site for the latest Homar-K/Chunmoo rocket artillery systems being sent to Europe. The K239 Chunmoo is designed to carry two pods that can be armed with at least three different calibers of munitions. A reported 288 units of these launchers were ordered from Hanwha Aerospace with the requirement they are adapted to the JELCZ 8×8 truck. (Pictured above.) But an important detail wasn’t emphasized amid the fanfare: Hanwha Aerospace is delivering launchers for missiles with a range of 80 kilometers and 290 km.

In fact, it was clear from photos later shared by Poland’s defense ministry that the army’s Homar-K’s are meant to be loaded with the Chunmoo’s 239mm munitions that are grouped in six munitions for a single pod and a single very large diameter munition occupying an entire pod. In other words, a ballistic missile measuring 500mm (or larger) in the thickest section of its airframe. It turns out South Korean media knew the full details months beforehand. Poland’s defense ministry were completely on-board with the development of a new Hanwha KTSSM variant that could reach targets 290 km away. It’s an immense distance but still below the threshold of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which regulates the commerce in nuclear-capable missile systems. What Poland is expecting are an unspecified number of KTSSM-II that’s comparable in size and appearance to the Lockheed Martin ATACMS, which Poland is ordering from the US in a separate arms deal. The arrival of KTSSM-II’s in Europe makes it the second Asian tactical ballistic missile on the continent after China transferred its own export approved SRBM to Belarus as part of the Polonez system.

One of the stranger developments in the Korean peninsula’s never-ending arms race is both countries had missile programs that converged and mirrored each other. The Hanwha KTSSM/KTSSM-II has at least two equivalents, or rival systems, in North Korea that carry similar missiles. The advantage of fielding these road mobile launchers armed with SRBMs is they allow multiple strikes on the enemy’s critical infrastructure and even “decision-making centers” while undetected by air, land, and space-based intelligence gathering tools. Even if the missiles are tracked in mid-air by ground-based or even naval radar systems countermeasures won’t respond fast enough to engage and neutralize them unless these are theater-level anti-ballistic missile interceptors. It’s a challenging task that becomes harder to fulfill if the missiles are launched in waves over a short period of time.

South Korea’s ballistic missile production has a longer history than North Korea’s own efforts, which are now broad and varied to compensate for its military’s weaknesses. The difference is Seoul limited its own production to a single model in the 2000s and didn’t expand the Hyunmoo program until recently. The results are still impressive and at this stage the older Hyunmoo 2A/2B are being augmented with the upcoming Hyunmoo 3, Hyunmoo 4, and the Hyunmoo 5. There are other types of conventional short and medium-range missiles under development in South Korea. Taken as a whole, by the 2010s the Asian continent became crowded with low cost missile technology available to whoever needs them. (This goes a long way explaining how a pariah like Myanmar collected a ballistic missile inventory it has kept mum about.) As for the K239 Chunmoo rocket artillery system and its potential global reach South Korean media claims at least two Middle Eastern countries–Saudi Arabia and the UAE–have quietly acquired a few units each. Its success in Poland with a locally made transporter bodes well for its sales elsewhere in Europe as a modular road mobile artillery system.