S.Korea's Missile System in Trouble

The Air Force has decided to examine its U.S.-purchased Nike Hercules ground-to-air missiles, which have been deployed in the country since 1965.

"The scrutiny will be conducted jointly with the state-run Agency for Defense Development and private LG Innotek," said an official at the Defense Ministry.

The measure came after ADD's report said last week that more than 90 percent of Nike middle-range missiles were unable to fire warheads in recent tests.

"Only eight out of 100 Nike Hercules missiles succeeded in launching their warheads during a reliability test three years ago, while only 19 were able to shoot up first-stage propellant motors," an ADD official said on condition of anonymity.

The military has launched a series of reliability tests since December 1998 when a Nike missile accidentally fired and exploded over a residential area in the western city of Incheon, injuring several people and causing massive property losses.

A Nike missile again self-destructed over a major city south of Seoul in 1999. The military imposed a ban on live-fire exercise of the missiles last year due to safety fears, the report said.

The ADD report sparked complaints about the U.S.-made missiles and concerns about South Korea's air defense readiness against rival North Korea which has developed long-range ballistic missiles.

South Korea has hundreds of Nike missiles with a range of 180 kilometers (108 miles) as a key ground-to-air deterrence against the North's air attacks. The missile was developed by Raytheon of the United States in 1958.

South Korea was seeking to replace the Nike missiles with PAC-3 missiles, the advanced version of the Patriot, under a $1.6 billion procurement project, code-named SAM-X.

The Defense Ministry originally planed to award the contract to Raytheon by the end of this year. But military officials said the decision would be postponed until next year after a recent negotiation broke up mainly over price and the timetable for payments.

Raytheon has been the sole bidder to provide South Korea with 48 ground-to-air missiles since Russia's Rosvoorouzhenie dropped out of the race last year.

South Korea has defended its missile program to cope with threats from North Korea. Seoul and Washington signed new missile guidelines in January this year, which allows South Korea to build missiles with a range of up to 187 miles and a payload of 227 pounds.

The agreement came after South Korea, which had been restricted from developing a missile with a range of more than 112 miles, complained that their missiles fall far short of reaching most of neighboring North Korea.

-- Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.