On November 27, local time, KCNA reported that North Korea decided to award the "Hero of the Republic" title, gold medal and first-class national flag medal to the "Hwasong-17" new intercontinental ballistic missile No. 321 launcher. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time that North Korea has awarded the title of "Hero of the Republic" to an object.
And it should be noted that the award this time is not the "Hwasong-17" intercontinental missile, but the No. 321 launcher vehicle, which was launched on November 18, that is, the launch vehicle. As we all know, most of North Korea's missile launchers have previously used off-the-shelf technology from other countries, such as six WS51200 timber transporters purchased from a country in East Asia. North Korea's small launchers have also been traced before, for example, the "Polaris-2" missile launcher uses an elongated T-62 tank body.
According to photo analysis, this launch vehicle has 22 wheels, of which 3 pairs of wheel hubs are concave, that is, there is no driving force, and the remaining 16 wheels have driving force. In other words, the car is a 22×16 drive long-axle heavy vehicle, which reminds people of those mechanical monsters developed in the former Soviet Union. And the most outrageous thing is that there is no similar heavy vehicle in the world, so this launch vehicle is most likely developed and produced by North Korea, and the technology of this heavy machinery needless to say North Korea, is a miracle for many manufacturing countries.
After talking about the launch vehicle, let's talk about the "Hwasong-17" missile itself, which sets a new volume record for a long-range missile that can be moved by humans so far. Comparable ballistic missiles are generally launched from underground silos. According to South Korean calculations, the length of the Hwasong-17 missile has reached an unprecedented 25 meters, and it stands to reason that the best way for such a huge missile should be to launch it in a silo.
That's because North Korea is so narrow that U.S. satellites often take high-definition images of North Korea's nuclear test site and several shipyards. Based on the amount of timber piled around the test site or the number of auxiliary vessels in the shipyard, the C.I.A. could tell that North Korea was building ships or preparing to conduct ballistic missile experiments. The United States can even determine whether the missile uses solid fuel or liquid fuel based on the logistics support vehicles in the launch site. So in this case, North Korea's attempt to deploy nuclear bombs in silos is suicidal, and these silos will be destroyed in the first strike.
Although the "Hwasong-17" uses liquid fuel, we have not seen any fuel refueling vehicles at the launch site, indicating that the launch preparation time of this type of missile is still very short, and it is not known what black technology liquid missile technology North Korea uses.
In general, the technology of the Hwasong-17 ICBM is not the most advanced, and many of its subsystems are quite backward compared to ballistic missiles of the same size developed by other countries. But North Korea has used these relatively backward technologies to develop world-class intercontinental ballistic missiles, and fully meet North Korea's current needs, the maximum range of "Hwasong-17" is as high as 15,000 kilometers, can cover the entire territory of the United States, and the previous "Hwasong-17" can not threaten Washington and New York and other east coast countries, in addition, the load of this type of ballistic missile reaches about two tons, in general, this type of missile is North Korea's optimal solution under limited technology. It can be said to be the crystallization of the wisdom of North Korean missile designers and heavy vehicle designers, and the design is extremely exquisite.
In recent years, the DPRK has developed a series of weapons including conventional ballistic missile submarines, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, medium-range missiles, hypersonic weapons, long-range cruise missiles and intercontinental missiles.