Korean test success highlights German missile prowess
South Korea conducted a successful test of the Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missile. The German-Swedish weapon was launched from an F-15K aircraft during the test in Korea and successfully hit a target 400 kilometres away. Ukraine also wishes to acquire this weapon, but Germany consistently refuses.
South Korea is among the few users of Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missiles, alongside Germany and Spain. The first batch of this type of weapon was purchased by Seoul in 2013 due to heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
In Korea, the missiles are carried by F-15K aircraft, with which the Taurus has been integrated. In Europe, the Spanish F/A-18 Hornets, Spanish and German Eurofighters, and Panavia Tornado aircraft utilise this missile. The Taurus has also been successfully tested with the Swedish JAS-39 Gripen.
South Korea plans to use the Taurus KEPD 350 missile to destroy North Korean fortifications and concealed nuclear installations. The test conducted with the F-15K was the first test of the Taurus in Korea in seven years.
Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missile
The Taurus KEPD 350 missile is designed to destroy heavily fortified targets. It is just over 5 metres long and over 1 metre wide (the fuselage has a nearly rectangular cross-section). The missile is manufactured using stealth technology, travels at subsonic speed, weighs about 1,400 kilograms, and carries a warhead weighing 480 kilograms. Its range is estimated at approximately 500 kilometres.
Although similar in construction to the Storm Shadow missile, the Taurus has significantly greater capabilities for destroying heavily fortified, pinpoint targets. The German weapon's effectiveness is due to the use of a specific MEPHISTO warhead (Multi-Effect Penetrator Highly Sophisticated and Target Optimised).
While the Storm Shadow missile's BROACH warhead can detonate with a delay (i.e., after penetrating, for instance, the interior of a bunker), the user must calculate the time it takes to breach the obstacle and program how many milliseconds after impact the warhead should detonate.
In the case of the MEPHISTO warhead, detonation occurs after passing through a user-defined number of obstacles, regardless of the time it takes. In practice, this means there is a much greater chance of Taurus destroying a target located, for example, in a bunker with an unknown ceiling thickness.
For this reason, Kyiv has been seeking Taurus missiles for years, but Germany consistently refuses to provide this weapon to Ukraine.
