Hwasong-5

The Hwasong-5 is a North Korean short-range ballistic missile, the country's own version of the Soviet Scud B. North Korea bought Scud B missiles from Egypt, reverse engineered them and began developing its copy in 1981, with flight tests following in 1984. Compared with the Soviet original it carries only minor changes to the airframe, motor and guidance system. The missile is about 10.94 metres long and 0.88 metres across, weighs 5,860 kilograms at launch, burns liquid fuel in a single stage and has a range of about 300 kilometres. Its single 985 kilogram warhead is most likely high explosive, though chemical, biological and submunition payloads are considered possible. It is road mobile, fired from a North Korean copy of the Soviet MAZ 543 transporter-erector-launcher or from converted commercial trucks. It entered service in 1986, an estimated 300 were built before production ended around 1991 or 1992, and North Korea is believed to have exported or planned to export it to about ten countries, among them Iran, where the variant is known as the Shahab-1.