N. Korea’s new rockets identical to SRBMs

Weapons analysts based in Seoul have raised speculations that North Korea has developed a new multiple rocket launcher (MRL) and the rockets fired from it were able to fly as fast as short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) following the country’s recent tests of what they described as a “newly developed large-caliber multiple launch guided rocket system.”

North Korea tested its newly developed MRL, firing two missiles each time on July 31 and Aug. 2. The projectiles flew around 220 kilometers to 250 kilometers at apogees of about 25 kilometers to 30 kilometers. The maximum speed was around Mach 6.9 for those fired on Aug. 2, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

Considering that a rocket from a 300-milimeter MRL usually flies as far as 200 kilometers at an altitude of up to 50 kilometers with a maximum speed around Mach 4.5, it is likely the North has developed a new type of rocket system which can fly farther and faster, at a lower altitude, according to some experts.

The North’s rockets were believed to have shown similar trajectories to the SRBMs it launched on May 4 and 9, July 25 and Aug. 6, which was probably the reason the South’s JCS assessed them as SRBMs.

Pyongyang’s test-firings of SRBMs and MRLs are believed to have involved the so-called pullup maneuver of the missiles and rockets, which fly at low trajectories to strike a target while evading anti-missile defense systems.

Concerns are rising that it has become harder to distinguish rockets from missiles with the development of guided systems for rockets. With the guided systems, rockets fly in similar trajectories to those of ballistic missiles.

But military experts said it was more important for the South Korean military to focus on how to improve the current missile defense system rather than discussing whether the projectiles were guided rockets or SRBMs.

Concerns have risen over the South’s Korea Air and Missile Defense (KAMD), one of Seoul’s three-axis missile defense system that also includes the Kill Chain pre-emptive strike system and the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR). The KAMD focuses on intercepting missiles in their terminal phase at lower altitudes.

Some argued that the South should advance the deployment of an anti-MRL weapon which resembles Israel’s Iron Dome, as it can intercept rockets and artillery shells in the range of 4 kilometers to 70 kilometers. Seoul’s JCS has been proceeding with the research on a South Korean version of the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system in cooperation with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) since last March.

The military authorities have reiterated that the North’s new weapons could be stopped by the South’s missile defense system. Seoul is planning to deploy an upgraded version of the current Patriot PAC3 system called PAC-3 MSE by next year, raising the intercept altitude to 40 kilometers from that of 15 kilometers to 20 kilometers.

The military will also deploy medium-range surface-to-air missiles (M-SAMs) Block II and long-range surface-to-air missiles (L-SAMs).