Image Source: Photo: KCNA
North Korea has mastered the production of powerful rocket launchers, which, due to their tactical and technical characteristics, are currently admired by many military experts, both in Russia and abroad.
As Yuri Lyamin, senior researcher at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), told the project "RG: Russian Weapons", North Korea began producing its own MLRS in the 60s.
"This was a 200-mm system, which was a version of the Soviet MD-20 Storm-1 with a maximum firing range of 18,750 meters. It was also used on Navy boats. It is known that in addition to the variant installed on the chassis of the car, there was also a towed modification.
In the 70s, 107-mm and 122-mm installations were mastered. The first are variations of the Chinese Type 63, the second is the development of the BM-21 Grad. They became widespread, they were installed on wheeled all-terrain vehicles and tracked armored personnel carriers.
Image Source: Photo: KCNA
122 mm VM-11s were exported to many countries, for example to Libya, where they are still used. Interestingly, their copies are now being produced in several states.
The first independently developed MLRS is considered to be a 240-mm system of the 1984 model. The most widespread was the launcher, which has twelve guides.
According to some reports, it could hit targets located at a distance of forty kilometers. At the same time, the most advanced version that appeared ten years ago already hits 70,000 meters.
In the mid-2010s, developers from the DPRK were able to make a real technological breakthrough by creating a 300-mm installation, known by Western designation as KN-09 (KN-SS-X-9), with high tactical and technical characteristics. Its guided munitions can hit the enemy at a distance of more than 220 kilometers.
Initially, combat vehicles were produced with eight guides on the platform of a three-axle car, and in 2020, at the parade in Pyongyang, variants with twelve "pipes" mounted on all-terrain vehicles with an 8x8 wheel formula were demonstrated," Yuri Lyamin said.
North Korea's most powerful MLRS is the 600mm KN-25. Now it has no direct analogues in the world, since it is capable of firing multiple rocket launchers, which, in fact, are already guided tactical missiles. It is believed that their diameter is 600 mm, length - 8.2 m, weight - 3000 kg. The range is 380 km.
