Repeated Interceptor Missile Failures... Is There a Problem with the Interception System?

One Cheongung Missile Explodes in Flight at Air Force Guided Missile Shooting Competition

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] It has been confirmed that the missile launch also failed at the guided missile shooting competition conducted by the Air Force.

According to the Air Force on the 3rd, at the '2022 Guided Missile Shooting Competition' held the previous day at Daecheon Shooting Range in Boryeong, Chungnam, one domestically produced medium-range guided weapon, "Cheongung," exploded during flight. Cheongung burned its fuel completely during about 10 seconds of combustion after launch and exploded after flying approximately 25 km over the sea.

An Air Force official explained, "It is presumed that communication between the guided missile and the fire control radar, which must continue during the intermediate phase, was unstable," adding, "The interceptor missile is designed to explode in the air after a certain time if communication remains unstable."

The Defense Agency for Technology and Quality (ADD) and the manufacturer are analyzing log files to determine the cause of Cheongung's communication failure and explosion. Since its deployment in 2017, all 17 launches of Cheongung until last year were successful, and this is the first failure, the military reported. In the same competition, a Patriot (PAC2) interceptor missile was found to have an error just before launch, and the launch was canceled.

A military official said, "A 'fault' (error) appeared on the radar while monitoring the fire control radar," and explained, "Considering that it was not an actual situation but during the competition, the launch was immediately canceled."

The military stated that the remaining shooting competition scheduled for the 9th will proceed once it is confirmed that there are no safety issues. This year's competition involved about 180 operational personnel from two Patriot battalions under the Missile Defense Command and four Cheongung battalions.

Our military fired a Hyunmoo-2C missile on the 4th of last month in response to North Korea's missile launch, but it flew abnormally and fell. One Hyunmoo-2C missile launched from the launcher flew abnormally immediately after launch, heading west (directly behind) instead of the target area in the East Sea's international waters, and reportedly fell on a golf course located within a military base.

The missile warhead was embedded in the golf course about 1 km from the launch site, and the propulsion unit behind the warhead was separated and landed about 400 m further away.

Additionally, one ATACMS missile launched after the Hyunmoo missile fall lost its tracking signal during flight and disappeared from tracking equipment. At that time, our military explained, "Since it was a retaliatory firing, it is not considered a launch failure."

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