The KN-02 Toksa ( 毒蛇), Hwasong-11 is a North Korean
reverse-engineered
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
locally produced modification of the
OTR-21 Tochka
OTR-21 ''Tochka'' (russian: оперативно-тактический ракетный комплекс (ОТР) «Точка» ("point"); en, Tactical Operational Missile Complex "Tochka") is a Soviet tactical ballistic missile. Its GRAU desi ...
short-range
ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within the ...
.
Design and development
In 1983, Syria acquired a number of 9K79 Tochka (SS-21 Scarab-A) missiles from the Soviet Union, a single-stage,
solid-propellant
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...
guided missile with a range of 70 km and a
CEP of 160 m. In 1996, Syrian missile technicians provided North Korea with technical data on the missiles, then shipped some of the missiles themselves. The first test of a North Korean-produced version occurred in April 2004 and was a failure, but it was then successfully fired on 1 May 2005 into the
Sea of Japan
The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...
; the KN-02 has been tested at least 17 times. Initial production is believed to have begun in 2006, with the missile displayed aboard a launcher during a military parade in April 2007, and entering service in 2008. At least 50 missiles are speculated to be in service.
[KN-02](_blank)
- Missilethreat.csis.org
- Military-Today.com
The KN-02 is a short-range, road-mobile ballistic missile, broadly equivalent to improved Scarab-B. Although it has a shorter range than other North Korean missiles like the
Scud-C
A Scud missile is one of a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was exported widely to both Second and Third World countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name attached to the mis ...
, it has superior accuracy of near 100 meters CEP through inertial guidance with an optical correlation system in the terminal phase, making it the most accurate ballistic missile in the inventory; this enables it to be used for precision strikes against priority targets such as airfields, command posts, bridges, storage facilities, and even enemy troops concentrations in a tactical support role on the battlefield. Its warhead weighs and likely consists of a high-explosive,
submunition
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicl ...
, thermonuclear, chemical payload; Russian engineers could equip the OTR-21 with a 100
kiloton
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a t ...
nuclear warhead. The missile has a range of , and it may be capable of traveling through reducing payload to .
[KN-02 short-range ground-to-ground ballistic missile](_blank)
- Armyrecognition.com
A significant difference between the Russian OTR-21 and North Korean KN-02 is the
transporter erector launcher
A transporter erector launcher (TEL) is a missile vehicle with an integrated tractor unit that can carry, elevate to firing position and launch one or more missiles.
History
Such vehicles exist for both surface-to-air missiles and surface-to-su ...
(TEL). While the Russian missile is transported and fired from the 6×6 9P129 that has amphibious capabilities, the KN-02's TEL is a locally fabricated version of the Belarusian MAZ-630308-224 or -243 6×4 or 6×6 commercial heavy utility truck, which has a maximum road speed of and is not amphibious. The vehicle has a short firing cycle, able to be ready for launch in 16 minutes, launch the missile in 2 minutes, and be reloaded in 20 minutes by a supporting reloader vehicle of the same design fitted with a crane and holding 2-4 more missiles.
Further developments
In 2013, South Korean intelligence reports suggested that North Korea was developing an
anti-ship ballistic missile
An anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is a military ballistic missile system Anti-ship missile, designed to hit a warship at sea.
Due to the often hypersonic flight speed of ballistic missiles an ASBM's kinetic energy alone may be sufficient t ...
version of the KN-02. Its range is estimated to be , longer than current
KN-01 variants, and it would be much more difficult to intercept due to its faster speed.
In March 2014, a South Korean military source claimed that the KN-02's range had been extended to through improved engine performance. The source also claimed that North Korea possessed 100 missiles with 30 TELs deployed to fire them. In August 2014, three KN-02s were fired out to a range of and estimated to have 100 meter circular error probable accuracy.
Extended range Hwasong-11/KN-02 is referred to as KN-10. It is expected that range of the missile is greater than 230 kilometers.
The U.S. identified the KN-10 system back in 2010.
Operators
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See also
OTR-21 Tochka
OTR-21 ''Tochka'' (russian: оперативно-тактический ракетный комплекс (ОТР) «Точка» ("point"); en, Tactical Operational Missile Complex "Tochka") is a Soviet tactical ballistic missile. Its GRAU desi ...
References
{{DPRK missiles
Short-range ballistic missiles
Tactical ballistic missiles of North Korea
Theatre ballistic missiles
Chemical weapon delivery systems
Military equipment introduced in the 2000s