The Hwasong-6 () is a

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

tactical ballistic missile A tactical ballistic missile (TBM), or battlefield range ballistic missile (BRBM), is a ballistic missile designed for short-range battlefield use. Typically, range is less than . Tactical ballistic missiles are usually mobile to ensure sur ...

. It is derived from the

Hwasong-5 The Hwasong-5 () is a North Korean tactical ballistic missile derived from the Soviet R-17 Elbrus missile. It is one of several missiles with the NATO reporting name Scud. History North Korea obtained its first R-17 missiles from Egypt in 1979 ...

, itself a derivative of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

R-17 Elbrus The R-17 Elbrus, GRAU index 9K72 is a tactical ballistic missile, initially developed by the Soviet Union. It is also known by its NATO reporting name SS-1C Scud-B. It is one of several Soviet missiles to carry the reporting name Scud; the most p ...

. It carries the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two Nor ...

reporting name

Scud A Scud missile is one of a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was exported widely to both Second and Third World countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name attached to the m ...

History

Work on an extended-range version of the Hwasong-5 began in 1988, and with only relatively minor modifications, a new type was produced from 1989, designated Hwasong-6 ("Scud Mod. C" or "Scud-C"). It was first tested in June 1990, and entered full-scale production the same year, or in 1991. It was superseded by the

Rodong-1 The Hwasong-7 (; spelled Hwaseong-7 in South Korea, lit. Mars Type 7), also known as Nodong-1 (Hangul: ; Hanja: ), is a single- stage, mobile liquid propellant medium-range ballistic missile developed by North Korea. Developed in the mid-1980s, it ...

. To increase range over its predecessor, the Hwasong-6 has its payload decreased to and the length of the rocket body extended to increase the propellant by 25%; accuracy is 700–1,000 meters

circular error probability In the military science of ballistics, circular error probable (CEP) (also circular error probability or circle of equal probability) is a measure of a weapon system's precision. It is defined as the radius of a circle, centered on the mean, wh ...

(CEP). Such range is sufficient to strike targets as far away as western Japan. Its dimensions are identical to the original Hwasong-5. Due to difficulties in procuring

MAZ-543 __NOTOC__ Year 543 ( DXLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 543 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...

TELs, mobile launchers were produced in North Korea. By 1999, North Korea was estimated to have produced 600 to 1,000 Hwasong-6 missiles, of which 25 had been launched in tests, 300 to 500 had been exported, and 300 to 600 were in service with the

Korean People's Army The Korean People's Army (KPA; ) is the military force of North Korea and the armed wing of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Under the ''Songun'' policy, it is the central institution of North Korean society. Currently, WPK General Se ...

. Variant with terminal maneuverability was tested in May 2017. U.S. intelligence referred to the upgraded missile as the KN-18.

Export

The Hwasong-6 was exported to Iran, where it is designated as the

Shahab-2 The Shahab-2 ( fa, شهاب ۲, Ŝahāb 2, meaning "Meteor-2") is the successor to the Iranian Shahab-1 missile. It is based on the North Korean Hwasong-6 (modified version of the Hwasong-5, itself a modification of the R-17 Elbrus). On November ...

, to Syria, where it is manufactured under licence with Chinese assistance and to Yemen.

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

also imported Hwasong-6 ballistic missiles in 2009. About 100 hwasong-6 ballistic missiles were purchased by Vietnam from North Korea in 1995.

References

{{DPRK missiles Ballistic missiles of North Korea Korea–Soviet Union relations Tactical ballistic missiles of North Korea Chemical weapon delivery systems Military equipment introduced in the 1990s

History

Export

See also

References