A North Korean rocket launcher.Via U.S. Army
FORBES | Published December 1, 2029
The Russian military rolled deeper into Ukraine in February 2022 with more than a thousand wheeled rocket launchers in its arsenal. It was one of the biggest tactical rocket forces in the world.
But in 33 months of hard fighting, the Russians have lost no fewer than 400 of the original multiple-launch rocket vehicles to Ukrainian action. While the Kremlin has dragged a lot of old launchers out of long-term storage, it hasn’t been able to recover enough of them to both make good battlefield losses and equip new units. Rocket stocks are also running low.
Which is why MLRs from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are so important to the Russian war effort. According to Lt. Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, the regime in Pyongyang has donated to Russia 100 artillery systems including M1989 self-propelled howitzers and M1991 rocket launchers.
We already knew about the hulking M1989s, each firing 170-millimeter shells weighing 100 pounds apiece at least 25 miles. Photos circulated online earlier this month depicting some of the tracked howitzers on a train trundling through Russia.
We also knew North Korea had given Russia millions of artillery shells and dozens of 7,500-pound KN-23 ballistic missiles—and sent thousands of troops to reinforce Russian regiments and brigades counterattacking the 250-square-mile salient that a Ukrainian force carved out of western Russia’s Kursk Oblast in August.
The M1991s are a powerful new addition to the battered Russian rocket corps. Firing 240-millimeter rockets weighing 187 pounds as far as 37 miles, the M1991s outshoot almost every artillery system in the Ukrainian inventory. The Ukrainians’ American-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems are notable exceptions.
The North Korean army hides its M1991s in mountain redoubts along the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas. In wartime, the launchers could bombard Seoul, which—not coincidentally—lies 37 miles from the DMZ. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., the M1991s are “a key means by which North Korea holds Seoul and South Korea at risk, supporting its deterrence posture.”
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.forbes.com
RELATED: North Korea’s Kim says Russia has right to self-defence against Ukraine
Pyongyang will ‘invariably support’ Russia ‘to defend its sovereignty’, Kim tells visiting Russian defence chief.
AL JAZEERA | Published December 1, 2029
North Korea’s leader has assured steadfast support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and agreed to boost military ties with Moscow, during a meeting with the Russian defence minister, state media reported.
Kim Jong Un said Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons is the result of direct military intervention by the United States, and Russia is entitled to fight in self-defence, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Saturday.
Outgoing US President Joe Biden this month allowed Ukraine to use US-provided, long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) inside Russian territory.
Kim pledged that his country “will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against imperialist moves for hegemony” while hosting Russian Minister of Defence Andrei Belousov in Pyongyang on Friday, KCNA reported.
Russia and North Korea have deepened their military links, with Pyongyang sending thousands of troops to participate in Moscow’s war effort.
Kim and Belousov agreed on further strengthening the strategic partnership between their countries.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.aljazeera.com
Be the first to comment