South Korea Announces That They Will Develop an Air Launched Cruise Missile By 2028
Considering South Korea’s technical prowess a ALCM shouldn’t be too hard for them to develop:
South Korea’s arms procurement agency will launch a program to develop a long-range, air-launched cruise missile (ALCM), the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), said, Monday. DAPA said it will spend 190 billion won ($145 million) to produce the nation’s first domestically developed ALCM by 2028, and that it will be mounted on the KF-21 fighter jet, currently under development by Korea.
Korea Times
The ALCM is anticipated to be capable of hitting a target up to 500 kilometers away with pinpoint accuracy, and will become a core asset of the KF-21, DAPA added.
The ALCM is a completely new endeavor for South Korea, due to a lack of technologies involving the safe mounting of missiles on an aircraft and separating them for use. But research from 2019 to 2021 has confirmed the feasibility of the development project, according to DAPA.
You can read more at the link.
This could be related to the “new” friendsip with Taiwan, as Taiwan had the capability in the late 1970s
Actually South Korea developed and deployed ground, ship, and sub launched long range cruise missiles from the early 2000s.
These were revealed for the first time during the 2013 Armed Forces Day parade.
So the development and deployment of an air launced cruise missile is a natural extension of the capabilities that Korea currently has and not because of a supposed “new” friendship with Taiwan.