South Korea’s Defence Acquisition Programme Administration (DAPA) recently announced that it had completed a performance improvement programme of the Republic of Korea Navy’s Multi Ammunition Soft Kill System (MASS) Anti-Guided Missile Deception System. 

DAPA’s Director of the Infrastructure Power Business Support Division, Senior Civil Servant Park Jeong-eun said, “With this performance improvement of the Anti-Missile Decoy System (MASS), we expect that the anti-ship missile response capability will be strengthened and the survivability of ships will be increased, which will significantly enhance the Navy’s operational capabilities.” He also shared his future plans, saying,

The navy first deployed MASS in 2014 and the decoy launching system can simultaneously block the search functions of anti-ship guided missiles such as infrared, electro-optical, laser, and radar, and forms a large smoke screen in responseto guided missiles. It then launches decoys in response to anti-ship guided missiles attacking friendly ships, forming a large smoke screen with signals similar to those of actual ships, thereby deceiving the location of the ships and ensuring their survivability.

MASS greatly contributed to improving the operational capabilities of ships, DAPA stated, “However, as the seeker technology of anti-ship guided missiles has recently developed, new anti-ship guided missiles have emerged with the ability to distinguish ships from decoys based on the characteristics of radio reflection signals, and so it has become necessary to prepare for them.”

DAPA stated that it successfully resolved these requirements through its ‘Current Force Performance Maximization Project’, in which current operational MASS platforms were upgraded with an Offboard Corner Reflector (OCR) launcher. An OCR is a reflector that simulates irregular radio signals at the corners of a ship where radio reflections are high. This is the core technology of Korea’s next-generation deception system, which enhances deception capability to counter the latest anti-ship guided missiles.

Improvements were also made with the integrated operation of target management, engagement, and weapons control through linkage with the existing combat system and software. The performance of the improvements was proved through actual launches at sea, DAPA stated.

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