South Korea blazes new path with ‘most potent’ conventional missile submarine
Published: 03:09 PM,Sep 08,2021 | EDITED : 07:09 PM,Sep 08,2021
A South Korean soldier walks past Hyunmoo-2 (L) and Hyunmoo-3 ballistic missiles ahead of a celebration to mark the 69th anniversary of Korea Armed Forces Day, in Pyeongtaek. — Reuters file photo
SEOUL: South Korea’s development of a conventional submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is a ground-breaking move, analysts said, with implications for North Korea, the US alliance, and even the prospect of nuclear weapons in South Korea.
Last week, South Korea conducted ejection tests of the SLBM from its recently launched Dosan Ahn Chang-ho KSS-III submarine, Yonhap news agency reported, showcasing a unique capability. It is the only nation to field such weapons without nuclear warheads.
Seoul says the conventionally armed missile is designed to help counter any attack by North Korea. Analysts say the unusual weapon also checks many other boxes, including reducing South Korea’s reliance on the United States and providing a foundation if it ever decided to pursue a nuclear arsenal. South Korea’s ministry of defence declined to confirm the tests, but said it is pursuing upgraded missile systems to counter North Korea.
South Korea’s sub-launched missile, believed to be a variant of the country’s ground-based Hyunmoo-2B ballistic missile, with a flight range of about 500 km, is smaller than the nuclear-tipped SLBMs developed by the North.
H I Sutton, a specialist in military submarines, said the South’s technology is more advanced, however, and called the combination of an SLBM with the submarine’s quiet Air Independent Propulsion system a potential “game changer.”
“In these respects it is the most potent conventionally powered and armed submarine in the world’’, he wrote in a report for Naval News.
South Korea’s SLBM is one of a wide range of conventional missiles that the country is developing to augment its “Overwhelming Response” doctrine, said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The doctrine is an operational plan for strikes to pre-empt a North Korean attack or incapacitate its leadership in a major conflict.
“The SLBM is nominally justified in these terms, granting South Korean planners a highly survivable conventional second strike option in the face of North Korean attack; these missile systems would punish North Korea’s leadership in the case of an attack on the south’’, he said.
Although submarine-launched ballistic missiles are usually associated with nuclear weapons, that does not mean South Korea has them or is pursuing them, he said. “However, should the alliance with the United States fray in the future or South Korea’s national defences needs drastically shift, these SLBMs would provide an immediately available foundation for a limited, survivable nuclear force’’, he added. — Reuters
Last week, South Korea conducted ejection tests of the SLBM from its recently launched Dosan Ahn Chang-ho KSS-III submarine, Yonhap news agency reported, showcasing a unique capability. It is the only nation to field such weapons without nuclear warheads.
Seoul says the conventionally armed missile is designed to help counter any attack by North Korea. Analysts say the unusual weapon also checks many other boxes, including reducing South Korea’s reliance on the United States and providing a foundation if it ever decided to pursue a nuclear arsenal. South Korea’s ministry of defence declined to confirm the tests, but said it is pursuing upgraded missile systems to counter North Korea.
South Korea’s sub-launched missile, believed to be a variant of the country’s ground-based Hyunmoo-2B ballistic missile, with a flight range of about 500 km, is smaller than the nuclear-tipped SLBMs developed by the North.
H I Sutton, a specialist in military submarines, said the South’s technology is more advanced, however, and called the combination of an SLBM with the submarine’s quiet Air Independent Propulsion system a potential “game changer.”
“In these respects it is the most potent conventionally powered and armed submarine in the world’’, he wrote in a report for Naval News.
South Korea’s SLBM is one of a wide range of conventional missiles that the country is developing to augment its “Overwhelming Response” doctrine, said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The doctrine is an operational plan for strikes to pre-empt a North Korean attack or incapacitate its leadership in a major conflict.
“The SLBM is nominally justified in these terms, granting South Korean planners a highly survivable conventional second strike option in the face of North Korean attack; these missile systems would punish North Korea’s leadership in the case of an attack on the south’’, he said.
Although submarine-launched ballistic missiles are usually associated with nuclear weapons, that does not mean South Korea has them or is pursuing them, he said. “However, should the alliance with the United States fray in the future or South Korea’s national defences needs drastically shift, these SLBMs would provide an immediately available foundation for a limited, survivable nuclear force’’, he added. — Reuters