The Korea National Defense Project Promotion Committee has decided that the mass production of the Korean ground-to-ground tactical missile (KTSSM) system developed locally will begin this year.
The National Defense Acquisition Planning Administration issued a statement today, saying that according to a project with a budget of 320 billion won (about 290 million US dollars) and expected to be completed by 2025, the National Defense Project Promotion Committee approved the plan to purchase at least 200 missiles with a range of about 120 kilometers. The National Defense Project Promotion Committee is directly led by Defense Minister Xu Xu.
Yonhap News Agency quoted officials from the National Defense Acquisition Planning Administration as saying that the project aims to enable the South Korean military to destroy long-range artillery hidden in underground tunnels and "eliminate enemy attacks in the shortest possible time". They also said that the new tactical missile system developed by the National Defense Development Bureau and Hanwha Defense Company is expected to begin service in 2022.
The KTSSM system, also known as the "artillery killer", is designed for precision strikes. A static launch platform can produce four missiles almost simultaneously.
The projectiles used in the system are similar in appearance and size to those used in the tactical missile system of the US Army. Each missile has a payload area, which is believed to have a small-diameter armor-piercing warhead filled with high-explosive or warm-pressing explosives, and is designed to attack protected underground artillery positions.
In 2017, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense claimed that in the event of a conflict with North Korea, South Korea would use the KTSSM system to "crack down on enemy tunnels with 170 mm caliber self-propelled artillery and 240 mm caliber multi-barrel rockets".