South Korean cruise missile
The
Hyunmoo-3
is a
cruise missile
fielded by the South Korean military designed by
Agency for Defense Development
(ADD). The name
Hyunmoo
(
Korean
:
玄武
) comes from a
mythical beast
[4]
described as the "Guardian of the Northern Sky", perhaps hinting North Korea.
Design and development
[
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]
As a signatory of the multilateral
Missile Technology Control Regime
, South Korea agrees to refrain from importing a non-indigenous ballistic missile with a warhead larger than 500 kg, or a range of more than 300 km.
[5]
In addition, a bilateral agreement between the ROK and US limits indigenous South Korean produced missiles to no more than 500 miles (800 km) in range, and warheads no larger than 1,100 pounds (500 kg). (In September 2017, the presidents of the ROK and the US agreed "in principle" to lift these bilateral limits, increasing the possibility of a longer-range, more powerful Hyunmoo-4 in the future.)
[6]
Therefore, a heavy emphasis was put on developing long-range cruise missiles by the South Korean government. With the introduction of Hyunmoo-3, the
Republic of Korea Army
created the Missile Command in order to efficiently manage these missiles.
Despite the name, the Hyunmoo-3 bears no resemblance to the previous
Hyunmoo SSM
, which were improved versions of
Nike Hercules
surface-to-air missiles
that were converted into
short-range high-speed surface-to-surface ballistic missiles
in response to North Korea's
Scud-B
and
Nodong-1
missile threats. Instead, the new missile's designs are strikingly similar to the United States
Tomahawk cruise missile
. It is powered by a
turbofan
engine, and has a maximum payload of 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of conventional explosive. The guidance systems consist of
inertial guidance system
and
global positioning system
.
Variants
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Hyunmoo-3A
, which was nicknamed "Eagle-1" (禿수리-1) during the testing, has a range of 500 km, while
Hyunmoo-3B
, nicknamed "Eagle-2" (禿수리-2) Cheonryong (天龍 順航 미사일), has a range of 1,000 kilometres (620 mi).
Hyunmoo-3C
, or "Eagle-3" (禿수리-3), will be capable of striking its target up to 1,500 km (930 mi) away. This is a significant improvement from Hyunmoo I which had a range of 180 km (110 mi) and Hyunmoo-2A, which only has a range of 300 km (190 mi), both of which were ballistic and not cruise missiles.
Sejong the Great
-class
destroyers
and
KSS-III
-class submarines will be equipped with these
Chonryong
[7]
[8]
submarine-launched cruise missiles
inside their
K-VLS
cells.
[2]
A Hyunmoo-3B
air-launched cruise missile
with over 500 km (310 mi) range exists and it is called
Boramae
.
[2]
[8]
[7]
A
submarine-launched cruise missile
called the
Haeseong III
is designed to be launched underwater from submarines.
[9]
It is actually the designation for the Hyunmoo-3 cruise missile when launched from a submarine and is unrelated to the
SSM-700K Haeseong
missile design.
[10]
Operators
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]
References
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]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Hyunmoo-3
.