• Title/Summary/Keyword: Hypersonic Weapon

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Hypersonic Weapons and National Security (극초음속 무기체계의 개발 경쟁과 국가 안보의 함의)

  • Son, Hyun-Seung;Lee, Ho-il;Ko, Duk-Gon
    • Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.56-69
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    • 2022
  • Various advanced countries are accelerating the competition in the development of hypersonic weapons. North Korea is on the verge of building a new submarine equipped with a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). A series of new guided missiles tests have continued due to political competition between the U.S. and China. The Republic of Korea is planning to boost its military capabilities, which involves the development of nuclear-powered submarines, light aircraft carriers, and new guided missiles. The northeast Asian region continues to be tense amid military rivalry between the Republic of Korea, North Korea, the United States, China, Russia, and Japan. Accordingly, these countries' competition to develop weapons is also at the world's highest level. In this paper, we examine the functioning of a hypersonic weapons system conduct a technical analysis of its components. In addition, we analyze the direction of military development that the Korean military wants to pursue through the recently announced mid-term defense plan. We conclude by highlighting the technical limitations and implementation strategies to overcome the development of hypersonic weapons.

USN's Efforts to Rebuild its Combat Power in an Era of Great Power Competition (강대국 간의 경쟁시대와 미 해군의 증강 노력)

  • Jung, Ho-Sub
    • Strategy21
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    • s.44
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    • pp.5-27
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    • 2018
  • The purpose of this paper is to look at USN's efforts to rebuild its combat power in the face of a reemergence of great powers competition, and to propose some recommendations for the ROKN. In addition to the plan to augment its fleet towards a 355-ships capacity, the USN is pursuing to improve exponentially combat lethality(quality) of its existing fleet by means of innovative science and technology. In other words, the USN is putting its utmost efforts to improve readiness of current forces, to modernize maintenance facilities such as naval shipyards, and simultaneously to invest in innovative weapons system R&D for the future. After all, the USN seems to pursue innovations in advanced military Science & Technology as the best way to ensure continued supremacy in the coming strategic competition between great powers. However, it is to be seen whether the USN can smoothly continue these efforts to rebuild combat strength vis-a-vis its new competition peers, namely China and Russian navy, due to the stringent fiscal constraints, originating, among others, from the 2011 Budget Control Act effective yet. Then, it seems to be China's unilateral and assertive behaviors to expand its maritime jurisdiction in the South China Sea that drives the USN's rebuild-up efforts of the future. Now, some changes began to be perceived in the basic framework of the hitherto regional maritime security, in the name of declining sea control of the USN as well as withering maritime order based on international law and norms. However, the ROK-US alliance system is the most excellent security mechanism upon which the ROK, as a trading power, depends for its survival and prosperity. In addition, as denuclearization of North Korea seems to take significant time and efforts to accomplish in the years to come, nuclear umbrella and extended deterrence by the US is still noting but indispensible for the security of the ROK. In this connection, the naval cooperation between ROKN and USN should be seen and strengthened as the most important deterrents to North Korean nuclear and missile threats, as well as to potential maritime provocation by neighboring countries. Based on these observations, this paper argues that the ROK Navy should try to expand its own deterrent capability by pursuing selective technological innovation in order to prevent this country's destiny from being dictated by other powers. In doing so, however, it may be too risky for the ROK to pursue the emerging, disruptive innovative technologies such as rail gun, hypersonic weapon... etc., due to enormous budget, time, and very thin chance of success. This paper recommends, therefore, to carefully select and extensively invest on the most cost-effective technological innovations, suitable in the operational environments of the ROK. In particular, this paper stresses the following six areas as most potential naval innovations for the ROK Navy: long range precision strike; air and missile defense at sea; ASW with various unmanned maritime system (UMS) such as USV, UUV based on advanced hydraulic acoustic sensor (Sonar) technology; network; digitalization for the use of AI and big data; and nuclear-powered attack submarines as a strategic deterrent.