Deliveries of “Korean Patriots” to the Military Complete

South Korea’s arms procurement agency announced Tuesday that all ordered Cheongung anti-aircraft guided missile systems, dubbed “Korean Patriots,” were delivered to the military.

According to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), final units of the self-propelled system were handed over to the Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF) in April.

The systems have been deployed since 2015.Total number of units delivered to the RoKAF is not known.

The Cheongung medium-range surface-to-air missile (KM-SAM or M-SAM) Block-1 systems are the country’s first indigenously developed mid-range surface-to-air guided missile. Along with the Block-2 variants, the systems are intended to replace the military’s MIM-23 HAWK (Cheolmae) SAM systems.

Also known as Cheolmae-2, the systems were developed with technical support from Russia’s Almaz-Antey company. It is based on technology from the 9M96 missile used on S-350E and S-400 missile systems.

They are capable of striking a hostile aircraft at an altitude of up to 40 kilometers.