Hyunmoo-3


Hyunmoo-3 is a new cruise missile that is to be fielded with the military of Republic of Korea. It is designed by Agency for Defense Development. The name Hyunmoo comes from a mythical beast described as the "Guardian of the Northern Sky", perhaps hinting North Korea.

Design and development

As a signatory of the multilateral Missile Technology Control Regime, South Korea agrees to refrain from importing a non-indigenous ballistic missile with a warhead larger than 500 kg, or a range of more than 300 km. In addition, a bilateral agreement between ROK and USA limits indigenous South Korean produced missiles to no more than 500 miles in range, and warheads no larger than 1,100 lbs.
Therefore, a heavy emphasis was put on developing long-range cruise missiles by the South Korean government. With the introduction of Hyunmoo-3, which also has some advanced systems sometimes found on ICBMs, the Republic of Korea Army created the Missile Command in order to efficiently manage these missiles.
Hyunmoo-3 bears no resemblance to the previous Hyunmoo SSM, which were improved versions of Nike Hercules surface-to-air missiles that were converted into short-range high-speed surface-to-surface ballistic missiles in response to North Korea's Scud-B and Nodong-1 missile threats. Instead, the new missile's designs are strikingly similar to the United States Tomahawk cruise missile. It is powered by a turbofan engine, and has a maximum payload of of conventional explosive. The guidance systems consist of Inertial guidance system and Global Positioning System.
Hyunmoo-3A, which was nicknamed "Eagle-1" during the testing, has a range of 500 km, while Hyunmoo-3B, nicknamed "Eagle-2" Cheonryong, has a range of 1,000 km. Hyunmoo-3C, or "Eagle-3", will be capable of striking its target up to 1,500 km away. This is a significant improvement from Hyunmoo I which had a range of 180 km and Hyunmoo-2A, which only has a range of 300 km, both of which were ballistic and not cruise missiles.
Sejong the Great-class destroyers and KSS-III class submarines will be equipped with these Chonryong submarine-launched cruise missiles inside their Vertical Launching System.
A Hyunmoo-3B air-launched cruise missile with over 500 km range exists and it is called Boramae.

Operators