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Counter Artillery

The North has a vast array of artillery deployed near the inter-Korean border that can reach Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi Province which have a population of roughly 20 million. The North is known to have deployed more than 300 long-range artillery pieces near the inter-Korean border, which can reach Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff announced 17 October 2017 that the military was working on a new missile interceptor that could, in theory, deflect a massive North Korean artillery barrage. Documents submitted by the Joint Chiefs in their briefing to the parliamentary audit conducted by the National Assembly’s Defense Committee, which was held at the Joint Chiefs’ office, state that “we are considering the development of an interceptor system to counter concentrated enemy fire directed at important state and military facilities, including the War Command Headquarters and the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD).” The Joint Chiefs added that “The Agency for Defense Development is developing key technology for directly and simultaneously intercepting North Korean long-range artillery rounds as they fall.”

Such a technology would be a game-changer on the Korean peninsula. Seoul, the enormous capital city of South Korea, is only 35 miles from the border with their twin nation and rival. Military action against the North has not been seriously considered by the South in the past, in no small part because Seoul is well within the range of a tremendous barrage of North Korean artillery and rocket artillery that could reduce the metropolis to rubble.

But a mass interceptor would change the calculus of such an exchange. "We are considering the development of an interceptor system to counter concentrated enemy fire directed at important state and military facilities, including the War Command Headquarters and the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD)," said the Joint Chiefs to the National Assembly's Defense Committee.

"The Agency for Defense Development is developing key technology for directly and simultaneously intercepting North Korean long-range artillery rounds as they fall." Such a system would require a large amount of research and development. The software to detect and reply to the launches quickly would have to be highly advanced, and an enormous amount of launchers and interceptors would need to be built.

The system is inspired by the Israeli Iron Dome interceptor network, meant to protect Israeli populated areas from Hamas and Hezbollah rocket attacks. The Iron Dome's effectiveness has proven impressive since it was installed in 2011, stopping around 90 percent of rocket attacks launched against Israel in the 2014 Israel-Gaza Conflict. South Korea has repeatedly investigated the possibility of buying their own Iron Dome system, and US contractor Raytheon (who participated in the development of the Iron Dome) has offered to sell it to them – but it seems unlikely that Seoul will make the purchase.

The Joint Chiefs were critical of the idea of introducing Israel’s “Iron Dome” rocket defense network: “Iron Dome is a weapon system that is appropriate for defending against sporadic rocket attacks by irregular military units such as Hamas. As such, it is inappropriate for a simultaneous long-range artillery attack by North Korea against the capital region.”

Furthermore, the Iron Dome's primary purpose is to protect civilians. The theoretical South Korean system, the Joint Chiefs said, is meant to protect military, command, and missile defense centers, not population centers. It remains unclear if the project is feasible or not. It would easily be the most complicated and expensive interceptor network ever built if completed – but if the situation on the Korean Peninsula continues to deteriorate, Seoul may find it worthwhile.

"Against the threats from North Korea's multiple rocket launchers and long-range artillery, (the military) is building up a countermeasure system based on an anti-artillery warfare concept," ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said in a press briefing 20 May 2017. As part of the efforts, the military is developing a new attack system that puts together some of its artillery weapons like its own Chunmoo MRLS, the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) surface-to-surface missile, and the SLAM-ER air-launched cruise missiles used by the Air Force, Moon noted.

FASCAM is a newly introduced mean against enemy fire power and supposed to be scattered on base areas in front of a tunnel so as to deter maneuver and shooting of enemy artilleries. However, for its characteristics different from conventional munitions, only a few studies have been undertaken on operations system using this new measure.

South Korea has completed the development of a counter-battery radar system capable of locating the enemy’s firing positions for immediate retaliatory response. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said on 03 August 2017 that the system called “counter-artillery detection radar-II” will be mass produced starting early in 2018 before being deployed to front-line units in phases. The radar system is key for South Korea’s counter-fire assets to neutralize the North Korean long-range artillery guns threatening the capital region. The system is capable of finding and determining the location of the enemy’s artillery forces more than 60 kilometers away.

Counter artillery radars can track projectiles to determine weapon type and calculate both point of impact and place from which was shot fired. This is one of the reasons why the lowest possible time for artillery deployment into firing position and back into march is so important not only for fast responding fire support, but it's essential for artillery survival on the modern battlefield where enemy artillery can know position of your artillery even before first rounds you fired hits the ground.

For counter artillery radar it is also good when it's reasonably mobile and quick to re-deploy because as radar is a source of radiation his position can be triangulated and specialized anti-radiation missiles like ones fired by combat aviation can easily deal with radars that aren't protected with anti-missile defense systems from long range.

"In recent tests it met all of the required operational capabilities of the military. It has been assessed to be fit for combat use," the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a 24 April 2017 statement. Developed in a six-year project, worth around 54 billion won (US$47.7 million), the new system would add to the Army's existing ARTHUR-K radar imported from Sweden. The domestic development project begun in November 2011 by defense company LIG Nex1 was officially completed 28 July 2017.

The truck-loaded radar will be positioned immediately in case of indications of howitzer, mortar or rocket attacks from the North to detect the artillery projectiles and identify from where the shells were fired. The information will be sent to the South's artillery units for counterattacks. South Korea's new radar can find the location of the enemy's artillery forces more than 60 kilometers further away than around 40km by the ARTHUR-K, said the DAPA. It can also operate for around eight hours in a row, some two more hours than the Swedish radar.

"With the successful development of the counter-battery radar, our military has laid the groundwork for destroying the origin of the enemy's provocations, if carried out, in the early stage of combat, through immediate counter-fire," Army Col. Kim Dong-ho, a senior DAPA official, said.