South Korea reportedly test fires submarine-launched ballistic missile

The homegrown SLBM has been test fired from a new 3,000t class submarine.

Navy2 — Model of a Dosan Ahn Changho-class submarine. Credit: Teukwonjae707/commons.wikimedia.org.

The South Korean Navy has reportedly test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from a locally developed submarine.

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What is driving and impacting South Korea’s Defense Market?

South Korea’s defense budget is currently valued at $48.3 billion after experiencing impressive and robust annual growth of 10.5% in 2022. Over the forecast period, South Korean defense expenditure is anticipated to register a strong CAGR of 6.3% over 2023-27 and reach $66.2 billion by 2027. The country’s acquisition budget, which includes research and development (R&D) funding, is also anticipated to register significant growth, projected to reach $21.6 billion in 2027, seeing significant rise from the anticipated $17 billion in 2023. South Korean defense spending is continuing to be fueled by the country’s hostile relationship with North Korea, coupled with the need to develop its own domestic industry. If you want to strategize successfully off this growing market, it is important to be fully informed. This report’s key findings include:

Details on the defense budget
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Yonhap News Agency (YNA) reported, citing an undisclosed military source, that the launch makes South Korea the eighth country to possess the capability.

The US, Russia, the UK, China, North Korea, France and India are the other seven nations that have successfully developed the weapon.

An undisclosed defence ministry official told Bloomberg that the missile was fired from South Korean Navy’s 3,000t Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine last week.

The official also added that the SLBM is a Hyunmoo-2B ballistic missile variant and has around 500km range.

The news agency also reported that the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) performed underwater ejection tests of the missile from the vessel.

Last month, it conducted launches from an underwater barge.

The country’s defence ministry was quoted by YNA as saying: “Our military secures advanced high-powered military assets to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula by building strong military capabilities and plans to continue to develop them.”

In September 2018, Dosan Ahn Chang-ho was launched at the DSME Okpo Shipyard. It is 83.3m-long and 9.6m-wide, and capable of accommodating a total of 50 crewmembers.

The submarine is equipped with six vertical launch tubes.

In January, North Korea reportedly displayed a new SLBM at a military parade in Pyongyang.