Taurus Missiles

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Air-to-ground Taurus missiles introduced by the Korean military have been approved to be attached with military GPS receivers. Their deployment is expected from late this year.

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This is the Taurus air-to-ground cruise missile. At nearly the speed of sound, the missile flies in low altitude from where it's typically difficult to strike targets. The Taurus can then penetrate through 6-meter-thick reinforced concrete and hit the target. Taurus has a range of over 500 kilometers, almost double that of the Korean Air Force's existing SLAM-ER missile. With the longer range, the Taurus can even bomb the North Korean capital Pyongyang from South Korea's southern port city Busan. If launched from near the South Korean capital, Seoul, the missile can cover practically all of North Korea including the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the Punggye-ri nuclear test site and the Tongchang-ri missile base. The missile incorporates stealth characteristics and now it can even avoid GPS jamming by North Korea as the U.S. government has approved exports of military GPS receivers, which can be attached to war planes. The South Korean military will bring in and deploy some 170 of the missiles from Germany from the end of the year through next year's first half. Once deployed, the Korean Air Force will be the first in Asia to operate long-range precision strike missiles of over 500 kilometers attached to combat planes.