SEOUL, The Navy's SM-2 ship-to-air missile has successfully hit its target in the first live-fire exercise involving the weapon conducted in South Korea, officials said Sunday.
Navy officials said that the first domestic live-fire training session involving the SM-2 missile, designed to intercept enemy missiles and aircraft from the sea, took place in the East Sea on Friday.
The Navy's live-fire SM-2 exercises had been exclusively conducted at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii as part of the biennial Rim of the Pacific Exercise in the absence of a live-fire maritime test site and a test analysis system at home.
The first local SM-2 test occurred as the Agency for Defense Development established a maritime research center in the eastern coastal city of Samcheok in 2021 along with an analyst system for maritime live-fire tests of guided weapons.
During the latest training, an SM-2 was fired from the 4,400-ton destroyer Gang Gam-chan in the East Sea and intercepted a target drone approaching at a high speed, the Navy officials said.
The Navy said the test enables the mobilization of SM-2 missiles in future live-fire tests in South Korea, enhancing the Navy's response capabilities in antiaircraft defense and battles.
Officials also said that domesticating the process would spare the Navy the training cost of 1 billion won (US$769,822) per session.
In 2004, the Navy adopted the SM-2 missile by American defense manufacturer Raytheon. It has an attack range of 150 kilometers and costs 1.8 billion won per unit.
Source: Yonhap News Agency