TAipers (Tank+Sniper), a south korean air-to-ground guided missile that would replace TOW anti-tank missiles, has been displayed at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) 2022 conference. Cheongeom was developed by the research center of Hanwha Corporation in a military project led by the South Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD). TAipers, also known as Cheongeom, adopted a tandem warhead capable of breaking explosive reactive armor and LIG NEX1’s seeker. It will be installed in 200 light-armed helicopters (LAHs) to be produced by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to replace an aging fleet of MD500s and AH-1S Cobra.
The air-to-ground guided missile is equipped with an advanced visual and infrared dual mode seeker for day-and-night operations, and its fiber optic data link and Man-In-The-Loop (MITL) operation enable the operator to conduct both Line-of-Sight (LOS) and None-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) target striking missions. When launched from a helicopter, TAipers with a flight range of eight kilometers is guided by wire through an optical cable. If necessary, it is automatically guided to fire and forget. The air-to-ground guided missile weighing 35kg is 1.7 m in length and 150 mm in diameter.
