S. Korea to start development of Taurus-type missiles in 2018

'대전서 평양 정밀타격' 장거리 공대지유도탄 자체 개발한다

South Korea's military plans to develop long-range air to surface missiles that can accurately target the North Korean capital of Pyongyang from as far as Daejeon in South Korea, which is 500 kilometers away.
Kim Hyun-bin fills us in on the announcement made today.
South Korea's arms procurement agency said on Wednesday that it plans to develop air to surface missiles similar to the Taurus missile from Germany.
Apart from importing 260 long-range Taurus missiles from Berlin by 2018, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration is also planning to develop 200 similar missiles using solely homegrown technology.

DAPA spokesperson Kim Si-cheol
"We plan to develop the missiles with the nation's technology hosted by the Agency of Defense Development. The project is scheduled to kick off in 2018."

To achieve this, the South Korean government plans to allocate over 690 million U.S. dollars in research and development for the 200 long range air to surface missiles.
Currently, South Korea uses Slam-ER long range air launched cruise missiles which have a range of up to 280 kilometers, meaning they can hit the North Korean capital of Pyongyang when fired from Seoul.
However, the Taurus-class missile has a range of up to 500 kilometers, which means it is capable of reaching Pyongyang when fired from a jet flying above the city of Daejeon in South Korea, and even target the North's nuclear facilities in Yongbyon when fired from the inter-Korean border.

ed:paul
"The imported Taurus missiles will be attached to F-15K jets. However, the homegrown missiles will be used for the newly built KFX fighter jets which are scheduled to finish development by the mid 2020s.
Kim Hyun-bin, Arirang News."

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