By Jun Ji-hye
The Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the military will develop tactical, ground-to-ground GPS-guided weapons as part of a five-year defense plan to counter growing threats from North Korea’s long-range artillery.
The plan for 2017 through 2021 has a budget of 226.5 trillion won ($196.2 billion), and the ministry plans to finish development of the hardware by 2018 for deployment from 2019.
Among the stated objectives, the ministry has earmarked 24.1 trillion won to strengthen the nation’s capabilities for regional war as well as all-out war.
The core of the plan is to develop tactical, ground-to-ground GPS-guided munitions designed to destroy the North’s multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and self-propelled artillery.
The envisioned counter-artillery guided munitions will have a range of 120 kilometers, said a high-ranking ministry official on condition of anonymity, noting that the military has already successfully test-fired a new weapon several times.
“North Korea has some 300 long-range ground-based artillery weapons that threaten South Korea’s capital area,” the official said. “Our new system is designed to destroy (North Korean artillery weapons in) bunkers in the initial stages of a war.”
The plan was drawn up in response to Pyongyang’s MLRSs, which have emerged as an imminent security threat to the South since the Kim Jong-un regime claimed it conducted a successful test of a new 300-millimeter MLRS, indicating that it will soon deploy the new hardware.
The new rocket system is estimated to put U.S. military bases in Pyeongtaek and Osan, Gyeonggi Province, and South Korea’s Gyeryongdae military headquarters in South Chungcheong Province in range, according to experts.
The defense plan also includes, among others, introducing anti-ballistic early-warning radar from foreign countries to better detect submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) fired by the isolated state, according to the ministry.
The new radar will have a range of some 800 kilometers, longer than 500 kilometers of the Green Pine Radar currently operated by South Korean armed forces.
The military will also seek to develop carbon fiber bombs that can take out the North’s electricity supplies.
Thirteen kinds of weapons, including the Global Hawk unmanned aerial aircraft, the Taurus long-range air-to-ground missile and the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missile interceptors, which are core assets forming South Korea’s own Kill Chain preemptive strike and the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD), will be put into service in 2021, the ministry said, adding that 7.9 trillion won will be invested to achieve these objectives.
Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye