The L-SAM (Long-range Surface-to-Air Missile; ) is a South Korean long range

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

developed by the

Agency for Defense Development The Agency for Defense Development (ADD, ) is the South Korean government agency for research and development in defense technology, funded by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA). It was established in August 1970 under the ban ...

(ADD),

Hanwha Hanwha Group () is a large business conglomerate (chaebol) in South Korea. Founded in 1952 as Korea Explosives Co. (), the group has grown into a large multi-profile business conglomerate, with diversified holdings stretching from explosivesthei ...

, and

LIG Nex1 LIG Nex1 Co., Ltd. (), formerly known as LG Innotek () is a South Korean aerospace manufacturer and arms manufacturer. It was established in 1976 as Goldstar Precision. LIG Nex1 was previously owned by LIG Holdings Company, which in turn was ow ...

. The performance levels are comparable to the American

THAAD Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense, is an American anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in th ...

and the Israeli Arrow 2 and

Arrow 3 The Arrow 3 or ''Hetz 3'' (, or ) is an exoatmospheric hypersonic anti-ballistic missile, jointly funded, developed and produced by Israel and the United States. Undertaken by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Boeing, it is overseen by the ...

. L-SAM serves as a key system in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

's Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD). The development of L-SAM Block 1 was officially completed in May 2024 and was declared fit for combat by the

Defense Acquisition Program Administration The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA, ) is a central administrative agency of the South Korean Ministry of National Defense. It was founded on 1 January 2006 as part of a comprehensive reform of defense acquisition, including the ...

(DAPA).

Design and development

The L-SAM was developed with the aim of shooting down ballistic missiles such as North Korea's Hwasong-11A (KN-23) and Hwasong-11B (KN-24) in the terminal phase. It will be an upper-tier surface-to-air missile system for multi-layered defense as part of

Republic of Korea Air Force The Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF; ), also known as the ROK Air Force or South Korean Air Force, is the Air force, aerial and Space force, space warfare service branch of South Korea, operating under the Ministry of National Defense (South K ...

's Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) project, which has been planned since the early 2020s, with the lower tier composed of Patriot PAC-3 and KM-SAM batteries. The L-SAM system is expected to use two types of interceptors: one for anti-air meant to target general air breathing threats such aircraft or cruise missiles and the other for anti-ballistic. The

anti-ballistic missile An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to Missile defense, destroy in-flight ballistic missiles. They achieve this explosively (chemical or nuclear), or via hit-to-kill Kinetic projectile, kinetic vehicles, which ma ...

(ABM) consists of a total of three stages and uses a

hit-to-kill A kinetic energy weapon (also known as kinetic weapon, kinetic energy warhead, kinetic warhead, kinetic projectile, kinetic kill vehicle) is a projectile weapon based solely on a projectile's kinetic energy to inflict damage to a target, inst ...

system that intercepts targets with a kill vehicle with

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

sensors and precise flight control capabilities, and the missile interceptor will be capable of intercepting missiles at altitudes between 40 and 60 km. L-SAM demonstrated its intercept capability by succeeding three out of a total of four missile interception tests between November 2022 and June 2023. The development of L-SAM Block 1 was completed in May 2024, and initial mass production will begin in 2025 and will be deployed to the Republic of Korea Air Force from 2028.

Battery configuration

The L-SAM battery is composed of a multifunction radar, a command-and-control (C2) center, a combat control station, and four truck-mounted launchers, two of each missile type. It will use a trailer-mounted

S-band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the convention ...

AESA radar An active electronically scanned array (AESA) is a type of phased array antenna, which is a computer-controlled antenna array in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the ant ...

. * Command and control center: 1 * Combat control station: 1 * Multifunction

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

: 1 * Launchers: 4 * Missiles per launcher: 6 (

s and anti-ballistic missiles)

Improvements

L-SAM Block-II

On 25 April 2023, the 153rd Defense Acquisition Program Promotion Committee deliberated and approved on a plan to develop a new missile defense system with a higher intercepting altitude than the existing L-SAM with a budget of 2.71 trillion won by 2027. The new missile system, named L-SAM 2, includes high-altitude interceptor missiles and glide phase interceptor (GPI) missiles, and is estimated to have an interception altitude of 180 km.

References

External links