North Korea recently held Defense Development 2025 military exhibition. Among the exhibits was the Hwasong-11Ma hypersonic missile, shown to the public for the first time.
This is a hypersonic missile, as indicated by the hypersonic glide vehicle in its main section. It separates during flight and proceeds toward its target at Mach 5 (6,000 km/h) or faster.
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A key detail revealed by the name is that it belongs to the Hwasong-11 missile family. However, the Hwasong-11 family includes many missiles that are technically or conceptually unrelated.
Therefore, it is worth taking a closer look at the Hwasong-11Ma’s launcher and booster. It becomes clear that it was based on the Hwasong-11Da, whose warhead was replaced with a glide vehicle and a separation mechanism.
It is an enlarged variant of the Hwasong-11Ga (KN-23), which is based on the russian 9M723 from the Iskander-M system. Moreover, it appears that the KN-23 can be launched from the Iskander-M launcher, whereas the Hwasong-11Da cannot due to its larger size (1.5 meters longer).
A comparison of the Hwasong-11Ma and the Iskander-M shows that they have nearly identical tail sections and share the same launcher concept, featuring two missiles and an opening roof.
The characteristics of the new Hwasong-11Ma are currently unknown, but it is known that the Hwasong-11Da has a warhead weighing 2.5 tons and a range of 600 km. Therefore, it can be assumed that the Hwasong-11Ma will have a longer range, but the warhead will likely be smaller.
Recalling details about the Hwasong-11Da, in 2024 North Korea nearly doubled the warhead capacity of the new variant to 4.5 tons, sacrificing range.
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