Seoul : South Korea has announced its intention to enhance its missile defense capabilities by purchasing Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors from the United States to enhance missile defense against North Korean threats.
The defense procurement agency of South Korea, as reported by the Korean news agency (Yonhap), has indicated that its weapons programme review committee has approved the plan to acquire SM-3 missiles through Foreign Military Sales (government-to-government) by 2030, at an estimated cost of USD 583.4 million.
The anti-ballistic missile system is expected to be installed on South Korean Aegis destroyers.
The SM-3 system, a ship based surface-to-air missile used by the US Navy, is capable of intercepting ballistic missiles at altitudes exceeding 100 kilometers.
