IHS Jane’s 360:
Key Points
- On 3 March North Korea fired six rounds from its new 300 mm MRL in a show of defiance against new UN Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang
- The system seems to owe much to Chinese technology
China has apparently contributed significant technology to North Korea’s new 300 mm guided multiple rocket launcher (MRL).
Following China’s late 2011 supply of six 16-wheel transporter erector launchers (TELs), North Korea’s new 300 mm MRL, which was first revealed during Pyongyang’s 10 October 2015 military parade, further illustrates the challenge in getting Beijing to comply with new tougher UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea, passed on 2 March this year.
On 3 March North Korean media reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had “guided” the firing of a “new type large-calibre multiple launch rocket system”. For the first time the North Korean report described the rocket as having a “controlled ordnance rocket warhead”, probably meaning the rocket uses a satellite-based guidance system to achieve greater accuracy.
That same day South Korean government sources disclosed that North Korea had fired six of these new rockets, which they estimated had a range of 100-150 km – enough to reach well beyond the South Korean capital, Seoul. Kim has also attended previous tests of this rocket, which include one in May 2013 and four tests in 2014.
Images released on 4 March by North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun newpaper website show that the system tested on 3 March was a slightly modified version of the new truck-mounted 300 mm MRL first seen in the 10 October 2015 military parade in Pyongyang; the latest images show a truck-based MRL featuring two side-by-side containers each holding four rockets each.
The new images help to confirm the Chinese origin of the system’s truck, which is a modified version of the HOWO ZZ2257M5857A 6×6 truck produced by the China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Company (CNHTC), or Sinotruk.
