South Korea to resume production of homegrown torpedo after quality improvement

South Korea has successfully improved the quality of a homegrown torpedo, paving the way for its long-delayed mass production, the state arms procurement agency said Monday.In a test-firing on Friday, the torpedo, named "Hongsangeo," or "Red Shark," hit its intended underwater target, marking its third straight successful quality test, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA)."After two years of efforts, the torpedo has now met the requirement of hitting the target successively for three rounds. The results show that its quality has been improved enough to resume its production," a DAPA official said.

About 50 rounds of the anti-submarine torpedo had already been deployed since 2010, but its production was suspended after the torpedo had failed to work properly, prompting the Navy to file complaints over its quality in July 2012.The military has since conducted two rounds of additional tests, but the torpedo had failed to meet a required accuracy rate until last year, raising questions about its design."After conducting a comprehensive technology analysis for about six months till April, we've finally learned what caused the failure, and then changed some parts to boost its resistance from external shocks," the official said."Following the successful third round of the test-firing this time, production is expected to resume next month," he added.

The state-funded Agency for Defense Development created the Hongsangeo over a nine-year period starting in 2000 with a budget of 100 billion won (US$97.6 million). Some of the Navy's destroyers were loaded with the 5.7-meter-long torpedoes in early 2012.The two-stage torpedo is launched vertically from a destroyer and flies about 20 kilometers before dropping into the sea to track and destroy a target.A precision-guided weapon like Red Shark should demonstrate more than a 75 percent success rate to be suited for combat assignment."Taking this quality improvement as an opportunity, we will strive to provide the military with highly reliable precision-guided weapons," DAPA chief Lee Yong-geol said.


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