South Korea's missile test: Taurus strikes target 250 miles away
South Korea recently successfully tested the Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missile. During the test, this German-Swedish weapon was launched from an F-15K aircraft and successfully hit a target 250 miles away. Ukraine also seeks to acquire this weapon, but Germany has consistently refused its requests.
South Korea is one of only a few countries, alongside Germany and Spain, that use Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missiles. Seoul purchased its first batch of these missiles in 2013 due to increasing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
In Korea, the missiles are deployed on F-15K aircraft, with which the Taurus is integrated. In Europe, they are used with the Spanish F/A-18 Hornets, Spanish and German Eurofighters, and Panavia Tornado aircraft. The Taurus has also been successfully tested with Sweden's 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 specifically designed to destroy heavily fortified targets. It measures just over 16 feet long and more than 3 feet in width, with a fuselage close to a rectangular cross-section. Constructed using stealth technology, the missile moves at subsonic speeds, weighs about 3,086 pounds, and carries a warhead weighing 1,060 pounds. Its range is estimated to be approximately 311 miles.
Although similar in construction to the Storm Shadow missile, the Taurus offers much greater capabilities for destroying heavily fortified, pinpoint targets. The German weapon's effectiveness is attributed to its specific MEPHISTO warhead (Multi-Effect Penetrator Highly Sophisticated and Target Optimized).
While the BROACH warhead of the Storm Shadow missile can detonate with a delay (e.g., after penetrating the interior of a bunker), the user must calculate the time it takes to breach the obstacle and set the number of milliseconds after impact for detonation.
In contrast, the MEPHISTO warhead detonates after passing through a user-defined number of obstacles, regardless of the time it takes. In practice, this provides a much greater chance of Taurus successfully destroying a target located, for example, in a bunker with an unknown ceiling thickness.
For this reason, Kyiv has been trying to acquire Taurus missiles for years, but Germany consistently refuses to provide this weapon to Ukraine.
