[FOCUS] S. Korea draws up new combat concept for pre-emptive missile attack

By Lim Chang-won Posted : October 20, 2017, 16:30 Updated : October 20, 2017, 17:08

Korea Tactical Surface-to-Surface Missile (KTSSM) [Courtesy of the Agency for Defense Development]


For more than six decades since the Korean conflict ended in 1953, North Korea has always been aggressive, taking an offensive and provocative posture in the cross-border military confrontation that put South Korea in a defensive corner.

Military experts attribute South Korea's passive attitude to the geological vulnerability of Seoul, the densely populated capital which is not far away from the border and lies within a range of North Korea's artillery deployed along the heavily armed border.

South Korea regards the North's long-range artillery and large-caliber multiple rocket launchers as a grave security threat. Most of the North's artillery equipment is positioned in concrete bunkers and tunnels along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and the coast of its border islands.

However, Pyongyang's flamboyant push for the development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles prompted South Korea to revise its old strategy and draw up a more aggressive operational plan. A joint exercise conducted by U.S. and South Korean troops last year tested their ability to mount preemptive attacks against North Korea ahead of its possible invasion.

This year, South Korea went further to disclose the planned creation of a special army brigade aimed at decapitating North Korea's leadership and to conduct missile tests targetting North Korea's nuclear and missile bases as well as its war control tower.

During a parliamentary audit this week, the South's army presented a fresh operational concept that included a sweeping pre-emptive missile attack to neutralize North Korea's hardened and buried artillery targets and missiles in the early stage of an inter-Korean armed conflict.
 

Hyunmoo Missile [Courtesy of the Agency for Defense Development]


South Korea will use three types of ballistic missiles including the Korea Tactical Surface-to-Surface Missile (KTSSM), Hyunmoo-2 and Hyunmoo-4 to destroy North Korean bases for large-caliber guns, missiles and nuclear weapons.

The KTSSM with a range of over 120 kilometers (72 miles), developed by Hanwha, is a simplified version of the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATacMS) manufactured by Lockheed Martin. It is a new type of ballistic guided missiles known as artillery killer because it penetrates underground targets with its powerful warhead.

South Korea's missile inventory includes the Hyunmoo-2A with a range of 300 km, the Hyunmoo-2B that can fly over 500 km, the Hyunmoo-2C with a range of 800 km, and the Hyunmoo-3 cruise missile with a range of 1,000 km. Seoul will step up the development of Hyunmoo-4 missiles with a payload of more than two tons.

A 2012 missile accord allowed Seoul to extend the range of its ballistic missiles from 300 to 800 km but the maximum payload remained limited to 500 kilograms. South Korea has sought to develop missiles capable of carrying a heavy and powerful payload, and Trump allowed Seoul in September to deploy missiles that can fly for up to 800 km with no limit in its payload.
 

Taurus Missile [ROK Air Force]


On September 13, the South's defense ministry successfully staged the first live-fire exercise for Taurus with a range of more than 500 km that enables jet fighters to make a precise and powerful attack on the North's underground missile and nuclear facilities.

Along with a rapid-response missile system, the South's army came up with plans to form a new attack unit using drones and unmanned aerial vehicles that would be effective in detecting and destroying North Korean equipment hidden in underground tunnels.

According to Scout Warrior, an American defense magazine, U.S. war planners and weapon developers have been intensifying efforts to fast-track networking technologies designed to potentially counter or deter a North Korean ground invasion by better enabling soldiers to operate underground in tunnel complexes and in dense urban environments.

"The prospect of major ground war on the Korean peninsula has, quite naturally, taken on increased urgency," it said, adding weapons developers do say there is a fast-increasing need to engineer, harness and deliver communications technologies particularly suited to a modern threat environment.

The terrain, geographical layout and urban area on the Korean peninsula would clearly require ground combat forces to pursue extensive underground and urban war missions, the magazine said.


 
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