The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced on the 16th that it held a ceremony marking the completion of the Tactical Ground-to-Ground Guided Missile (KTSSM) deployment at the Missile Strategy Command, hosted by DAPA Chief Lee Yong-cheol.
The KTSSM is a crucial component of South Korea’s Kill Chain preemptive strike system. Its primary mission is to rapidly and precisely neutralize North Korean long-range artillery positions and hardened underground facilities that pose a threat to the Seoul metropolitan area in the event of conflict. The system has been dubbed Ure, a pure Korean word meaning thunder.
The Kill Chain is a military term referring to the capability to detect signs of North Korean nuclear missile attacks from the ground and preemptively strike the launch sites before they can initiate an attack. The KTSSM has a range of approximately 180 km (about 112 miles). DAPA plans to complete the development of an enhanced vehicle-mounted version, the KTSSM-II, by 2027, which will extend the range to 300 km (about 186 miles).
Oh Seong-sik, head of DAPA’s Guided Missile Project Division, stated that the successful deployment of the KTSSM will significantly boost the military’s operational capabilities. He added that they are committed to providing unwavering support for the development of next-generation ground-to-ground guided missiles.