Will South Korea’s ‘Goldilocks’ missile dent China’s Middle East arms ambitions?
The Cheongung-II has reportedly achieved a 96.7% intercept rate against Iranian drones and ballistic missiles
South Korea’s combat-proven, interoperable and geopolitically accessible surface-to-air missiles could hinder China’s efforts to sell its own defence systems to the Middle East, analysts have suggested.
According to a study by the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based think tank, more than 5,000 munitions were fired in the first 96 hours of the armed conflict, including about one-third of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missiles operated by Gulf states.
The South Korean-made medium-range surface-to-air missile Cheongung-II, known as M-SAM, was also involved in defending against Iranian attacks. Two of its batteries are operated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), following the 2022 acquisition of 10 batteries under a US$3.5 billion deal.