South Korea successfully tests L-SAM anti-ballistic system

South Korea continues to demonstrate that it has become, in just a few years, a major player of international scope in the world of high-tech armaments, with new armored vehicles such as the K-2 Black tank Panther et the K-9 Thunder self-propelled gun, FA-50 fighter jets et the new KF-21 Boramae, the Seijong destroyers et Dosan Ahn Changho submarines. This equipment has not only demonstrated, for those already in service, its efficiency and an excellent price-performance ratio; they also have many export successes, relying precisely on this economic and operational asset, but also on the responsiveness and flexibility of South Korean industry, as was the case, for example, in Poland. But there is another area of ​​excellence for the South Korean defense industry, in which demonstrations of effectiveness have multiplied in recent years, that of military missiles.

Thus, for the year 2021 alone, in response to the numerous demonstrations of force on the part of Pyongyang, in particular in the field of ballistic weapons, Seoul has carried out conclusive tests of new missiles, such as a new supersonic cruise missile in September, preceded by a few days of tests of the SLBM Hyunmoo 4-4 medium-changing ballistic missile. Previously, the South Korean missile LIG Nex1 developed in the previous decade the KM-SAM short and medium range anti-aircraft system, which entered service in 2019, designed with the support of Russia and partly derived from the S- 350 from which it borrows the 9M96 missile. At the same time, this same LIG Nex1 in partnership with Hanwha under the control of the Defense Development Agency, developed a second system designated L-SAM, intended this time to provide long-range anti-aircraft defense, up to at 150 km, but also a high endo-atmospheric anti-ballistic defense, between 50 and 100 km altitude, to counter in particular the new missiles with semi-ballistic trajectory and the North Korean hypersonic missiles.

This system demonstrated its anti-ballistic capabilities a few days ago, during a successful first trial, according to statements from Seoul. We do not know, and this is quite normal, the conditions of this test, in particular the altitude of the interception, as well as the speed and the nature of the target, apart from the fact that it simulated a ballistic missile. However, it is undeniably a very important success for Seoul, the L-SAM coming to equal and even exceed certain anti-ballistic performances of the American THAAD system, in particular because of a very extensive maneuvering capacity (see the video below above) and a lower interception floor, within a system which, moreover, offers interception capabilities against aircraft at long range, the domain of choice of the Patriot. In fact, Seoul is preparing to join a very exclusive club of nations with anti-ballistic capabilities capable of opposing hypersonic weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, alongside the United States, Russia, China and Israel, but to which Europeans, in particular the Franco-Italian couple with the Mamba, do not yet belong.

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