Celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Korean People’s Air Force (KPAF) provided an apparent first look at three new types of air-launched weapons, intended to arm the KPAF’s Su-25 Frogfoot ground-attack aircraft, and potentially others. The event also yielded a better look at the country’s ‘copycat’ drones, the Saetbyol-4 and Saetbyol-9 that are almost exact visual copies of the U.S.-made RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ-9 Reaper, respectively.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended the KPAF’s 80th anniversary event at Wonsan Kalma Airport in Wonsan, Kangwon province, on Friday, according to the state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The North Korean leader was accompanied by his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, widely assumed to be his likely successor, and bestowed the Order of Kim Jong Il — the country’s highest military decoration — on the air force.
Images released by KCNA showed Kim inspecting a display of some of the KPAF’s latest assets, which also included mobile missile launchers, as well as the service’s airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, based on a Russian Il-76 Candid cargo aircraft.
During his visit, Kim Jong Un stated that the KPAF will be reinforced with “new strategic military assets and entrusted with a new important duty,” though he did not specify the nature of these.
He emphasized that “the expectations … for the air force, which will play a role in the exercise of the nuclear war deterrent, are very great.”
While the comments appear to point to the addition of new nuclear weapons to the KPAF’s armory, they could also be understood in broader terms, in which the air force supports other parts of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
As for the air-launched weapons on show at Kalma Airport, these are potentially no less interesting.
The stores in question were seen loaded under the wing of a Su-25, around 38 of which are operated by North Korea, according to FlightGlobal analysis. However, it should also be noted, at this point, that we have no hard evidence that these are genuine, functioning weapons. While vaporware and hardware misdirection are common tactics in a military context, these different stores do at least make a good deal of sense in terms of a shortcut to modernizing the KPAF’s veteran fleet. It’s also worth noting that North Korean weapons displayed under the Kim Jong Un regime have traditionally come to some sort of operational or at least testing-level fruition. The days when mockups for propaganda and counterintelligence purposes were the norm are long gone.
Together with MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters, the Su-25s are the most capable aircraft in the KPAF inventory, followed by older MiG-23 Flogger swing-wing combat jets.
Otherwise, the KPAF combat fleet comprises even more antiquated equipment, including Chinese-made H-5 Beagle first-generation jet bombers, Soviet-era MiG-21 Fishbeds and their Chinese F-7 equivalents, and Chinese-made F-6 Farmers — a first-generation supersonic fighter. Even F-5 Fresco jets — a license-built version of the MiG-17, which was first flown in 1950 — remain in KPAF service, although these are reportedly only now considered for suicide missions.
The largest of the weapons displayed at Kalma is an apparent long-range air-to-ground missile, attached to the Su-25’s inboard underwing pylon. South Korean analysts immediately compared it to the KEPD 350 Taurus standoff weapon as used by the Republic of Korea Air Force’s F-15K Slam Eagle.
In terms of appearance, the missile shares some traits with the Taurus, including the box-like cross-section, a pair of pop-out wings, and cruciform tailfins. The missile is powered by a small jet engine, which could be fed by an underslung or rear side-mounted air intake arrangement.
There are also some similarities to the Russian Kh-69, a weapon that has been employed in the conflict in Ukraine.
South Korean analysts have attributed the weapon with an estimated range of 124 to 311 miles, but this remains speculative. Similarly, it’s not entirely obvious what type of guidance system is used, but a likely solution involves an inertial navigation system combined with GPS/GLONASS for mid-course updates, potentially also with terrain-matching, which would require an electro-optical digital scene-matching area correlation (DSMAC) system. The apparent optical window in the missile’s nose could be an indicator of a DSMAC guidance system.
Although the status of the weapon, the name of which is unknown, cannot be confirmed, a standoff cruise missile would be an important new development for the KPAF.
As it stands, the KPAF’s arsenal of precision-guided munitions is strictly limited.
In terms of roles, the standoff missile could be used to hit a variety of hardened targets with known coordinates and would be launched from within North Korean airspace and outside the range of many South Korean air defense systems. This would be especially important when it’s being launched from the subsonic and less-survivable Su-25.
Presuming it has capabilities similar to the Taurus, one or more targets could be programmed into the missile before flight, although it is less certain whether it would be possible to upload coordinates into the missile’s guidance system once the launch aircraft is airborne.
It’s possible that the North Korean missile can also be carried by the KPAF’s MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters.
Compared to the legacy air-to-ground weapons available to the KPAF, the new missile should offer a significant leap in capability. It would be much more accurate, as well as offering considerably greater range and survivability, although this also comes with a much higher price tag.
On the next three pylons outboard of the standoff missile, the KPAF Su-25 was armed with three-round clusters of what looks like another, much smaller precision-guided munition. Based on its appearance, this may well be something like a North Korean equivalent to the U.K.-designed Brimstone anti-armor missile, although it would almost certainly lack the more advanced features of that weapon.
As we have described in the past, the Brimstone family consists of ground, surface, and air-launched weapons, each of which is a little under six feet long and weighs around 110 pounds. These missiles offer a range of between five and 12 miles, and the guidance system is designed to be all-weather, day-and-night capable through the use of an active millimetric-wave radar seeker.
However, the optically transparent seeker used in the North Korean missile could also imply electro-optical or laser guidance. Both would make sense. The Su-25 is already equipped with an internal laser rangefinder/target designator.
Whatever the guidance type, the addition of a precision-guided anti-armor weapon would be a major advance for the KPAF’s Su-25s, which are otherwise restricted to using ‘dumb’ armament such as rockets and free-fall bombs. The KPAF’s Su-25 likely also includes Soviet-era laser-guided surface-to-air missiles, but these are much larger and more expensive weapons and are increasingly old.
Finally, and perhaps most intriguingly, the Su-25’s outboard underwing pylon is loaded with what appears to be a short-range air-to-air missile. Normally, this hardpoint would be loaded with a Soviet-era R-60 series (AA-8 Aphid) infrared-guided air-to-air missile. In terms of overall size, the North Korea weapon is similar but has a simpler arrangement of control surfaces, somewhat reminiscent of the European-made IRIS-T.
The possibility that Pyongyang has developed its own short-range air-to-air missile is interesting in itself. Its old stock of Soviet-era missiles is surely questionable in terms of functionality and quantity, and their effectiveness against a modern opponent with even basic countermeasures is highly questionable. Certainly, the R-60 specifically is, by now, a very dated design, with more limited performance compared to modern heat-seeking air-to-air missiles.
Indeed, the apparent size of the possible new air-to-air missile could point to a weapon with significantly improved capability, especially compared to older Soviet-era designs. Potentially, it is large enough to border on intermediate range, like the aforementioned IRIS-T. The European weapon has a reported range of around 16 miles and has yielded surface-launched derivatives.
Overall, this new ordnance is not representative of the “new strategic assets” for the KPAF that Kim Jong Un mentioned, although there is a possibility that the larger standoff cruise missile could potentially be fitted with a nuclear warhead at some point.
More importantly, these designs reflect continued efforts by the North Korean military to enhance its conventional military capabilities, alongside its much better-known nuclear weapons developments.
Other recent investments in the KPAF’s conventional warfighting capabilities include the aforementioned Saetbyol-4 and Saetbyol-9 drones and the Candid-based AEW&C aircraft.
On the other hand, the KPAF’s aging combat fleet needs all the help it can get, especially since Russia has, so far, apparently not provided any new aircraft.
For some time now, it has been expected that North Korea would receive secondhand MiG-29 and Su-27 Flanker fighters from Russia in return for Pyongyang sending thousands of troops to fight in Moscow’s war in Ukraine. This was also the assessment of the commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), but it doesn’t appear to have materialized yet. Indeed, as we have previously discussed, it is something harder to achieve in practice, based on what’s available in Russian stocks.
Before the topic of secondhand fighters for Pyongyang came up, there were suggestions that more advanced Russian equipment could be headed to North Korea.
Official photos released of Kim Jong Un’s visit to the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association, or KnAAPO, in the Russian Far East, showed the North Korean leader looking into the cockpit of a Su-57 Felon fighter, as well as in the final assembly hall for the Su-35 Flanker, and watching a demonstration flight over the factory airfield by a pre-delivery Su-35. Either of these types would be a huge advance over anything that the KPAF currently operates, but there have been no signs of a potential transfer in the works.
Perhaps Moscow has provided technical support to North Korea that could have helped it develop these three new air-launched weapons. This could be one form of payment for Pyongyang’s provision of soldiers and significant quantities of arms to assist Russia, and it’s still possible that fighters may follow. North Korea has reportedly also received high-end air defense assistance from Russia, as you can read about here.
Once again, we will need to wait for more evidence to confirm that some or all of these weapons are genuine munitions, let alone whether they have successfully completed their development and have been issued to frontline units. Even then, their efficacy should be questioned, especially when facing modern countermeasures and tactics. However, provided they are the real deal, any kind of more modern air-launched missiles will help make up for the glaring inadequacies in North Korea’s creaking air force.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com