The South Korean military has launched a project to upgrade its antimissile system to protect the capital region from short-range missile attacks from North Korea.

A military official said on Tuesday that the military is upgrading the PAC-2 Patriot antimissile system at a military base in Gangwon Province to a more effective PAC-3 system, which can intercept incoming missiles at higher altitudes and have a higher interception rate.

The official said that the upgrade would be completed by 2018 and the enhanced PAC-3 missiles will be deployed at a base near Seoul and the PAC-2 missiles in the capital region would be relocated to the Gangwon base.

Military authorities plan to gradually replace all PAC-2 missiles in the capital region with PAC-3 by 2022.

The PAC-2 generally operates at 15 to 20 kilometers and destroys targets by using a proximity fuse warhead, while the PAC-3 can intercept incoming missiles at higher altitudes between 30 and 40 kilometers and employs hit-to-kill technology.

Military authorities believe that it is effective to counter the North’s ballistic missiles targeted at areas south of the Seoul metropolitan region with the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense(THAAD) battery in Seongju, while the Patriot missiles deployed to the South Korean and U.S. troops would be effective to defend the capital area.