No One to Fire the Latest Missile

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] It has been revealed that there is a severe shortage of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) to actually operate the latest missiles deployed at the Army Missile Command.

According to the military on the 14th, the Army established the Missile Command in 2016 to respond to North Korea's Strategic Rocket Command. The Missile Command has deployed 'Hyunmoo 1, 2, and 3', the surface-to-surface missile 'ATACMS', and ballistic missiles with a range of 500 km to prepare for attacks involving North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles, including weapons of mass destruction. However, there is a severe shortage of NCOs to operate these latest missiles. As of December last year, the Missile Command required 806 NCOs, but only 650 were assigned, resulting in an assignment rate of just 80.6%. This is lower than the overall Army NCO assignment rate of 89.6%.

The situation is even more serious for the K30 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun 'Biho', deployed to prevent North Korean aircraft infiltration. While 39 NCOs should be assigned, only 23 are in place, resulting in an assignment rate of 59%, meaning half of the required positions are vacant. Due to the shortage of NCOs, many advanced weapons are operated by regular soldiers. Approximately 1,770 equipment operation fields, including K-9 self-propelled howitzer and K-55 self-propelled howitzer operators, and 535 combat command fields such as Cheonma fire control are operated by inexperienced soldiers.

Inside and outside the military, it is pointed out that the NCO operational structure is pyramid-shaped, resulting in many low-ranking corporals and a long-term selection rate of only 43%, which inevitably leads to a shortage of skilled NCOs.

In response, the Ministry of National Defense plans to add one more NCO rank to reinforce skilled NCOs who play a central role in the military, but progress has been slow. The plan to create a new rank called 'Yeongsa' (Chinese characters 英士 or 令士) between sergeant and staff sergeant this year to recruit about 18,000 NCOs is uncertain, as the annual increase in NCO personnel expenses is expected to be around 50 billion won.

The military established the Wonsa rank in 1989, solidifying the NCO rank system as corporal → sergeant → staff sergeant → Wonsa, and in 1995, the Ministry of National Defense led an effort to add one rank but stopped. Later, in 1999, the Army Headquarters considered adding one or two ranks but also halted the plan.

A Ministry of National Defense official said, "We plan to review a five-level rank system to expand the role of NCOs and revitalize their service, but it is true that there are difficulties such as budget constraints."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.