[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] "Raise North Korean Projectile"... Dispatch Warship

Sending About 10 Naval Vessels Including Mine Countermeasure Ships and Maritime Patrol Aircraft

The military authorities have dispatched naval vessels to recover North Korea's military reconnaissance satellite launch vehicle. They plan to collect maritime debris such as the first-stage propulsion unit of the North Korean space launch vehicle to investigate North Korea's rocket technology level.

Our Navy's mine countermeasure vessel, Haenam.
Photo by Yonhap News

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the 22nd, the North Korean space launch vehicle launched the previous night from the Dongchang-ri West Sea Satellite Launch Site in North Pyongan Province passed over Baengnyeongdo and west of Ieodo, the southernmost point of the Korean Peninsula. Since early warning radars deployed on the ground and naval Aegis ships stationed in the West Sea and South Sea tracked the launch vehicle's trajectory, the location of the debris falling into the sea was also identified.

The Navy dispatched about 10 vessels to the launch vehicle's debris fall area. At the site, minesweepers such as the Haenam-class (MSH-573) will conduct underwater searches. Minesweepers use variable depth sonar to locate the launch vehicle. The P-3C maritime patrol aircraft also took off. The P-3C maritime patrol aircraft was the first to discover debris in the sea about 240 km west of Gunsan, Jeonbuk, when North Korea's space launch vehicle 'Chollima-1' crashed shortly after launch on May 31.

The Navy has been operating over 30 maritime patrol aircraft, having introduced the first P-3C aircraft on April 4, 1995, as a successor to the S-2 maritime patrol aircraft that had been in service since the 1970s.

Meanwhile, the military authorities also attempted to recover debris during North Korea's failed first and second reconnaissance satellite launches. Some debris was recovered during the first launch on May 1. Through debris analysis, the military evaluated the resolution of the camera installed on North Korea's reconnaissance satellite to be around 3 meters. During the second launch in August, the propulsion unit and satellite were shattered into fragments due to an explosion, resulting in failure to recover debris.

The reason the military conducts debris recovery operations every time North Korea launches a reconnaissance satellite is to assess North Korea's rocket technology level. Space launch vehicles share the same propulsion and technical principles as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), so analyzing the debris can reveal the level of North Korea's ICBM technology.

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