LIG Nex1 Secures Safety of Long-Range Air-to-Ground Missile

Successful Test on FA-50
Deployment on KF-21 Planned from 2027

The first successful safe separation flight test of a domestically developed long-range air-to-ground guided missile was conducted on June 23 at the Air Force's 3rd Training Fighter Wing. The safe separation flight test is conducted to verify that there is no interference between the missile and the aircraft's structure or external stores during separation, and to ensure that the aircraft's response characteristics during separation do not compromise mission performance.

Long-range air-to-ground guided missile test round. Defense Acquisition Program Administration

According to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration on June 25, the test was carried out by mounting a test separation round on a test FA-50 aircraft. Since April, this FA-50 has undergone 31 sorties for preliminary tests such as pilot safety, load, and environmental testing, before being used for the safe separation flight test.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration plans to continue conducting various tests using the test FA-50, and from 2027, it will mount the long-range air-to-ground guided missile on the KF-21 prototype to conduct final verification of its operational performance.

The long-range air-to-ground guided missile program aims to develop a weapon with domestic technology that can be mounted on the KF-21 and precisely strike key enemy rear targets from long distances in the early stages of war. The introduction of the German-made Taurus missile for the F-15K is referred to as the first phase of the long-range air-to-ground guided missile project, while the current domestic development is called the second phase. The goal of the second phase is to acquire a guided missile with performance equal to or superior to the Taurus.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration began the second phase in 2018. Through exploratory development from 2019 to 2021, it applied technologies such as stealth design and guided navigation to verify operability, and has been conducting full-scale system development since 2022.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration stated, "The success of this safe separation flight test marks a major milestone in the development of the long-range air-to-ground guided missile," and added, "In the future, we expect that the package export of the KF-21 and the guided missile could enhance our competitiveness in overseas markets."