South Korea said Friday it will acquire U.S. SM-6 shipborne missile interceptors and field them by 2034. The ROKS Dasan Jeong Yakyong, seen here at a launch ceremony in Ulsan on Sept. 17, 2025, will be equipped with the interceptors. File Photo by Yonhap
South Korea on Friday finalized a plan to acquire U.S. Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) shipborne missile interceptors and field them by 2034, in a bid to boost its missile defense capabilities, the state arms procurement agency said.
The Defense Project Promotion Committee, a decision-making body for arms procurement under the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), approved the 530 billion-won (US$351.5 million) project to acquire the SM-6 long-range ship-to-air missile interceptors and related equipment, the agency said.
An SM-6 interceptor is an advanced defense missile interceptor for warships that can track and destroy a wide range of incoming threats.
It has a maximum range of 460 kilometers, with an altitude of up to 36 km, and is built to directly track targets with its own radar, allowing ships to deal with multiple threats at the same time.
