The Korean Folks’s Army on October 22 examined a brand new class of tactical ballistic missile, which makes use of a terminal stage with a hypersonic glide automobile to revolutionise the nation’s quick vary strike capabilities. Two hypersonic projectiles had been launched from Ryokpho District within the capital Pyongyang in direction of a goal space in North Hamgyong Province close to the Chinese language border, and efficiently struck their meant level on the tableland of Kwesang Peak The brand new hypersonic missile in query was unveiled within the first week of October on the Defence Improvement-2025 exhibition in Pyongyang, and seems to be a successor to the KN-23 sequence of tactical ballistic missile techniques. The nation’s peacetime business for manufacturing quick vary ballistic missiles is among the many very largest on the planet, probably being rivalled solely by that of China, which permits new designs to be introduced into service very quickly after finishing testing.
Missiles from the KN-23 system use semi-ballistic depressed trajectories with apogees of round 50 kilometres, and with the power to conduct intensive in flight manoeuvres all through their complete flight paths, which makes their missiles extraordinarily tough to detect or monitor, as confirmed by South Korean sources making an attempt to take action. Designated the Hwasong-11Ma, the brand new system’s use of a hypersonic glide automobile is anticipated to pose vital additional challenges, making it almost unimaginable to intercept. It seems to make use of the identical transporter-erector-launcher because the KN-23 and identical decrease part, whereas the higher part integrates a glide automobile. The system’s growth follows progress in direction of creating the world’s first intermediate vary ballistic missile with a hypersonic glide automobile, the Hwasong-16B, which was unveiled in March 2024.
Whereas the KN-23 intently resembled the Russian Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile system with many frequent options, with the hole between North Korean and Russian missile techniques already having been bridged, the brand new design brings the East Asian state’s arsenal into a brand new era that leaves its neighbours behind. Commenting on the brand new launch, secretary of the Central Committee of the Korean Staff’ Celebration Pak Jong Chon acknowledged that the event demonstrated “steadily upgrading self-defensive technical capabilities of the Democratic Folks’s Republic of Korea.” He described the system as a “weapon of recent strategic worth” and praised the analysis group’s progress. Whereas North Korea was the third nation to operationalise ballistic missiles with hypersonic glide autos behind Russia and China, it could be the primary to combine such autos onto a brief vary missile system. With the nation having exported the KN-23 and smaller KN-24 to Russia in vital numbers, the opportunity of the Hwasong-11Ma additionally being marketed to the Russian Armed Forces stays vital, and will critically additional complicate NATO members’ missile defence planning.
