A new solid-fuel hypersonic missile launched by North Korea on January 14. It was reported that the maximum flight altitude was close to 100 km and the flight distance was 1,000 km. /News 1
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While North Korea and Kim Jong-un drop “word bombs” every day, North Korea recently tested a new solid-fuel hypersonic missile, drawing attention to its reality. Today I would like to talk to you.
◇ North Korea is developing two types of hypersonic missiles: spoke and cone.
North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun reported on the 15th that “the test launch of a medium- and long-range solid-fuel ballistic missile equipped with a hypersonic maneuverable combat unit was successfully conducted on the 14th.” Details of the test launch, including the maximum altitude and flight distance of the missile have been revealed, I have not.
Hypersonic missiles are ultrafast missiles that fly at more than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5). This is not the first time North Korea has launched a hypersonic missile, and it has happened three times between 2011 and 2018. 2022. It was first launched on September 28, 2021 and was estimated to be at a maximum altitude of 30 km and a flight distance of 500 km. The hypersonic missile launched on January 11, 2022, is estimated to have a maximum altitude of 60 km and a flight distance of 700 km based on Korea-Japan analysis.
The “Hwasong-8” hypersonic missile appeared at North Korea’s military parade. It features a stingray-type warhead similar to the Chinese DF-17 and glides like a glider. The first test launch took place in 2021, but is known to have failed. /News 1
On the other hand, North Korea then announced that the flight distance was 1,000 km. The hypersonic missile, launched a few days earlier on January 5, 2022, recorded a maximum altitude of 50 km and a flight distance of 700 km. Two types of North Korea’s hypersonic missiles have been released so far: the Hwasong-8 type (stingray-type), which has a stingray-shaped warhead, and the Hwasong-11Na type (cone-type), which has a stingray-shaped warhead. of parsnip. cone shaped. The Stingray type is similar to the DF-17, a hypersonic missile currently deployed by China, but was launched only once in September 2021 and is presumed to have failed.
◇US information confirms that North Korea’s hypersonic missile flew 1,000 km
On the other hand, North Korea claimed “complete success” after the conical launcher was launched twice in 2022, and this time the first stage propellant was changed from liquid fuel to solid fuel. As you know, the strength and threat of solid fuel is that, compared to liquid fuel, it can be launched by surprise and immediately, making it difficult for Korea and the United States to respond.
So, how much has the hypersonic missile launched by North Korea evolved (developed) compared to before? The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that the range of the missile launched this time was 1,000 km, but did not reveal the maximum altitude. The Japanese Ministry of Defense announced that the maximum altitude was 50 km, but the flight distance was announced as 500 km, which was only half of what was announced by our Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Korean Central News Agency reported that North Korea’s Defense Development Academy conducted a successful test launch of a hypersonic missile in January 2022 in the presence of President Kim Jong-un. / Korea Central News Agency Yonhap News
There was also a difference in real-time information sharing about North Korean missile launches between South Korea, the United States and Japan this year. The short flight distance identified by Japan is believed to be due to the fact that the North Korean hypersonic missile maneuvered erratically at low altitude and was unable to track beyond 500 km. In fact, due to the curvature of the Earth, it is more difficult for us to determine the subsequent flight path of the North Korean missile than the Japanese one, so how did we know that it flew more than 500 km?
◇ “North Korea’s new hypersonic missile has a maximum altitude of nearly 100 km”
As you can imagine, this is obviously thanks to the help of the United States. If it were not for US information, we would not have known that the North Korean missile flew up to 1,000 km. Some argue that this time Japan was “disgraced” for ignoring U.S. information and holding on to what it had obtained.
When North Korea launched a hypersonic missile in January 2022, South Korea and Japan announced 700 km and North Korea announced 1,000 km, but even then the North Korean missile flew low and with an erratic maneuver, so it is very likely that he missed the target. last 300 km of the route.
According to well-informed sources, the maximum altitude of the North Korean missile this time was close to 100 km, and the maximum speed exceeded Mach 10. This is the highest altitude possible so far among North Korean hypersonic missiles, and is close to that of Chinese and Russian gliding hypersonic missiles. There are two types of hypersonic missiles currently under development around the world.
Comparison of trajectories of ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Hypersonic missiles perform erratic zigzag maneuvers at low altitude, making interception impossible or very difficult. /Chosun Ilbo DB
First of all, it is a hypersonic glide vehicle (glider), which initially rises like a ballistic missile, then separates from the propellant at a certain altitude and then glides at very high speeds of Mach 5 or higher. The second is a hypersonic cruise missile that flies like a plane with a scramjet engine.
◇ North Korea’s missiles are at the level of irregular circular maneuvers rather than zigzag evasive flights.
In particular, it is difficult to intercept hypersonic glide vehicles because they fly at extremely high speeds constantly changing trajectory in a zigzag pattern, including China’s deployed DF-17 and North Korea’s Hwasong-8. It has the characteristic of having a ray-shaped warhead, which is advantageous for gliding.
What North Korea fired this time is smaller than the medium-sized DF-17, as the warhead is cone-shaped, making large-scale anomalous zigzag glide maneuvers difficult. To use technical terminology, it is similar to a moving warhead (MARV) and does not zigzag up, down, left, or right, but rather performs a “circular maneuver” that makes a sharp turn left and right . It is known that the North Korean hypersonic missile managed to travel 240 km in the final stage in January 2022.
The encirclement maneuver is less effective than the anomalous zigzag glide maneuver, but it is certainly a factor that makes interception more difficult than that of a normal ballistic missile. It’s the same way it’s hard to hit a slider that curves left and right in baseball.
◇ Even if it is not at the “100% impossible to intercept” level, it is evolving into a threat.
Hypersonic missiles have the speed of hitting Seoul from Pyongyang to Seoul in 1 to 2 minutes, so they are emerging as an “uninterceptable, game-changing” weapon. However, if it is a missile with a zigzag gliding warhead, it is impossible to intercept them with the current capabilities of the ROK and US forces. However, military authorities believe that it is not 100% impossible if it is a warhead with “circular flight”, as is the case when the Russian hypersonic missile “Kinzhal”, first put into service during the war in Ukraine , was intercepted several times by the Ukrainian army’s American Patriot missiles is a good example of this.
In conclusion, it is clear that North Korea’s hypersonic missiles are evolving into a threat, but we can say that we are not about to give up because they are “100% impossible to intercept.” However, I think it is necessary to prepare for the possibility that North Korea could accelerate development by hacking Chinese and Russian technologies that have already managed to develop hypersonic missiles with glide warheads.
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