Defense News:
SEOUL — South Korea’s indigenous close-in weapon system, currently in the final development phase, will be unable to thwart incoming missiles based on test evaluations, according to military and industry sources.
Nicknamed “Sea Bow,” the Korean surface-to-air anti-missile (K-SAAM) has been in development since 2011 to replace Raytheon’s Rolling Airframe Missile and provide close-in defense for warships. The state-funded Agency for Defense Development is in charge the $140 million project to produce the medium-range, ship-based missile in collaboration with LIG Nex1, a precision-guided missile manufacture.
The project hit a snag, however, as the development period was extended by two years following test failures in 2016, when two of the five missiles missed their respective targets.
