A torpedo launched by the South Korean Navy’s submarine during a live-fire exercise at the recent Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) did not reach its target and fell into the sea. The missile failed to transmit signals, leading the U.S. military to halt the exercise forcibly.
According to South Korea’s military authorities, the Navy’s Sohn Wonil-class submarine, Lee Beom Seok (SS-II, 1,800 tons), participating in RIMPAC, conducted a live-fire exercise with a Harpoon anti-ship missile on July 19 at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), targeting the retired U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship Tarawa (38,000 tons).
The Harpoon missile was generally launched from a submarine, but as it traveled toward the target, the PMRF control center failed to receive any signals from it. As a result, the control center stopped the training exercise to ensure safety and initiated emergency measures to disable the missile, which then fell into the sea.
Participating units in RIMPAC are equipped with signal transmission devices for live-fire exercises. These devices send information such as speed, location, and orientation to the PMRF control center, which will forcibly stop the training if it does not receive signals for a certain period. The U.S. is currently analyzing the reason for the missed signal.
In the 2002 RIMPAC, the Navy’s Jang Bogo-class submarine Na Dae Yong (1,200 tons) launched a Harpoon missile, hitting a retired U.S. destroyer. This marked the first time the Navy successfully fired a Harpoon missile. Since then, the Navy’s 1,200-ton submarines have launched Harpoon missiles six times at RIMPAC.
The Harpoon missile’s maximum range is 150 km, and the Navy conducts launch training using practice rounds about once a year. In this exercise, Lee Beom Seok and eight other U.S. assets, including unmanned aerial vehicles, conducted live-fire exercises targeting the Tarawa.