Military and “defense technical” cooperation, being the centerpiece of reenergized Russian and North Korean diplomatic relations, can be concluded to have found itself in the latter’s strategic weapons systems. Pynongyang’s latest weapon, the Hwasong-16B hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), which was...
www.eurasiantimes.com
North Korean HGV
The missile, which North Korea reports is also called the solid-fuelled Hwasong-16NA Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM), has a “newly developed hypersonic gliding flight warhead.” But hypersonic missiles are incredibly complex and technically challenging systems, and Pyongyang simply doesn’t have the advanced scientific and defense industrial base required to produce and test many of the systems and sub-components.
Primarily, controlling an HGV that is released by a launch vehicle into the atmosphere is extremely difficult. Without talking specifically about Russian-North Korean cooperation, former director of the Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) Research and Development Establishment (R&DE) laboratory, Dr. S. Guruprasad, said that it’s a complex technology involving sophisticated and difficult “material sciences and computational fluid dynamics.”
“Moreover, a country also needs a hypersonic wind tunnel test facility. It is difficult to imagine any nation developing an HGV without such scientific and industrial setup under heavy sanctions,” he explained. Guruprasad also recalled how, during an earlier trip to South Korea as a part of a delegation, the debris and fragments of North Korean missiles displayed by the host were of Russian and Chinese origin.
HGVs can significantly alter their trajectory post-release, making them difficult to intercept by an adversary’s air defense systems. The operational principle of HGVs, which can carry both conventional and nuclear payloads, is similar to Maneuverable Reentry Vehicles (MaRV).
Once again, technology being used for evil purposes. Rockets can be used for good (as in launching weather or TV satellites), but can also be used for war. Seems like N. Korea prefers the latter. The article uses the metric system as we all could be doing now in 2024, so for the Yankees to convert kilometers into miles, multiply the kilometer values by 0.62.
This is a summary of the
article posted by OP:
The article by Parth Satam, published on April 8, 2024, discusses the emerging defense partnership between North Korea and Russia, focusing on recent diplomatic developments and military cooperation. The author suggests that the shared animosity towards the US and NATO has led these two countries to find solidarity, with Russia importing artillery rounds from North Korea since late 2022 and showing interest in its drone and missile systems.
North Korea's technological capabilities are questioned regarding the development of hypersonic gliding flight warheads (HGVs) for its intermediate-range ballistic missiles, such as the Hwasong-16B. The article explains that creating an HGV is a complex process involving advanced material sciences, computational fluid dynamics, and access to hypersonic wind tunnel test facilities. Given North Korea's heavily sanctioned scientific and defense industrial base, it is unlikely that the country has all the necessary resources to develop HGVs independently.
The author also notes that the partnership between Russia and North Korea seems to be shifting from diplomatic and strategic support to defense cooperation, with Moscow possibly offering technical expertise in missile technology in return for affordable ammunition. This arrangement could help Russia unburden its military factories and strengthen its defense capabilities, especially against NATO.
The article also mentions Russia's growing defense-technological ties with Iran, driven by their shared hostility towards the US and NATO. However, the author does not provide much detail on this aspect of the relationship.
The Hwasong-16B missile test-fired by North Korea is described as a nascent system, with the North Korean statement suggesting that it was aimed at confirming its technical specifications and verifying the reliability of the weapon system. The HGV reached two peaks during the flight but was forcibly controlled to limit its range to less than 1,000 kilometers. Overall, the article argues that North Korea's development of HGVs is a challenging endeavor due to its lack of advanced scientific and industrial capabilities under heavy sanctions.
