<< Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, second from left, on September 13 looks around displayed domestically produced weapons at a weapons exhibition in a seminar on the “joint weapons system development” sponsored by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Photo By Lee Heon-koo.
By Kim Byeong-ryun
On September 13, new domestically designed weapons currently under development, such as a thermobaric bomb developed the Samyang Chemical Industry and a self-exploding unmanned aerial vehicle by the Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI), were displayed at a weapons exhibition during a seminar on the “joint weapons system development” sponsored by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
On the day, the Samyang Chemical Industry disclosed three kinds of weapons: a 227-millimeter rocket bomb equipped with a thermobaric warhead; a portable thermobaric rocket launcher; and a thermobaric grenade. Different from a conventional warhead, which mostly strikes the target with its shrapnel and blast effects, a thermobaric warhead produces a much more powerful heat, pressure and blast effects than the other, and so it has significant advantages when deployed inside confined environments such as caves and buildings.
A Samyang source said their development of the thermobaric weapon carries great significance in that just a few countries in the world possess the weapon. On the other hand, the KAI disclosed the current stage of developing “Devil Killer” which is a self-exploding high-speed unmanned aircraft striking targets in precision.
The KAI aircraft is equipped with a video camera, cutting-edge navigation system and high explosive bombs. It is characterized as crashing to explode the target it has found during its flight in the sky above the front lines.
The drone has been under development as a model of new-concept technology project proposed by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), a KAI source said. The KAI is expected to complete the development as early as the end of next year.
Another Korean defense industry Poongsan Metal Corporation displayed the domestically developed frangible bullets at the exhibition. A frangible bullet is designed to disintegrate into tiny particles upon impact to minimize the scattering of its fragments and to avoid ricochets.
Frangible bullets are also often used by shooters engaging in close quarter combat training to avoid ricochets. Accordingly, because the bullets limit the danger behind the intended target and environmental impact, they are frequently used in times of hostage rescue operation and at the time of military operations in the places, such as ships, aircraft and atomic power plants, necessary to protect their facilities.
And at the seminar on the joint weapons system development hosted by Vice Adm. Won Tae-ho, director of strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, there were six presentations under the theme of “The Aspects of Electronic Warfare and Counterweapon System Development.”
In particular, Dr. Ryu Si-chan from the Agency of Defense Development (ADD) gave an presentation on ways and techniques to detect the presence of Global Positioning System jammers, on ways to counter complex jamming and on countermeasures to attack jammers.