Recently, interest in Israel’s Iron Dome, which has almost completely prevented Iran’s indiscriminate drone and missile strikes, is growing.
The problem is the astronomical cost, but the Hanwha laser anti-aircraft weapon, which costs only 2,000 won to launch, is due to be used in the Korean army in the second half of this year for the first time in the world.
This is reporter Bae Chang-hak.
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Iran launches over 350 drone and rocket attacks on Israel.
99% of them are shot down by the Iron Dome, the best air defense system in existence.
The problem is price.
The price of one Iron Dome missile is about 50,000 dollars, or about 70 million won in Korean currency.
Israeli military authorities said that up to 1.8 trillion won per day, or about 8% of the military’s annual budget (22.3 trillion won), is spent on defense against this Iranian attack.
Accordingly, Israel has developed Iron Beam, which uses cheap lasers instead of missiles, and is scheduled to be deployed next year.
Hanwha is researching and developing a laser anti-aircraft weapon (Block-I) similar to the Iron Beam and will deploy it to the Korean military for the first time in the world in the second half of this year.
The Hanwha laser weapon can intercept unmanned aerial vehicles such as drones with an output of 20 kW (kilowatt).
It is launched at the speed of light at 300,000 km per second and can hit multiple targets simultaneously and continuously.
The cost for one launch is 2,000 won, the lowest in the industry.
In a military weapons test evaluation, it destroyed all 30 targets at a distance of 3 km and was deemed fit for combat by the Ministry of National Defence.
Once fully deployed, it could become Hanwha’s flagship product as the Ministry of National Defense plans to invest more than 1 trillion won in mass production of weapons alone.
Hanwha Aerospace will be responsible for the weapons mass production stage.
We plan to create a next generation laser weapon (Block-II) with an output of 30 kW (kilowatt) that can be mounted on vehicles by 2030.
In the future, higher power output and longer range will enable it to respond to hypersonic missiles as well as fighter jets and satellites.
Laser weapons can be used as a means of defense against terrorism not only in the military but also in important national facilities such as airports, ports and power plants, so there is a high possibility of receiving foreign orders.
This is Chang-hak Bay from Korea Economic TV.
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