Tag: AEGIS

The real question is if the ROK military had early warning of an impending missile launch and were told by the Blue House to not deploy the Aegis ships to track the launches for fear of upsetting North Korea? With that said another possibility could be that the ROK military did not need the radar data because they were already getting it from their land based Green Pine radars:

South Korea’s key warships assigned to detecting North Korea’s missile launches have failed to detect and track them on five occasions this year.

According to Navy data obtained by Liberty Korea Party lawmaker Chong Jong-sup on Thursday, Aegis vessels failed to detect and track North Korea’s ballistic missile launches on May 4 and 9, July 25, Aug. 2, and Sept. 10. 

The North has launched new missiles or projectiles from multiple rocket launchers on a total of 11 occasions since May 4.

“No sailing orders were given to the Aegis vessels from the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters to monitor North Korea’s missile activities on time,” the Navy said. 

“Even if sailing orders had been given, the missile activities were out of Aegis radar range in some cases” or “it was possible to detect and track only one out of every two missiles, because the combat readiness system update was often delayed on the Aegis ships.”

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This photo, released by the Navy on Nov. 29, 2017, shows South Korea’s ship-to-surface missile Haesong-II being fired from the Aegis ship. South Korea’s military conducted a live-fire missile training on the same day near the eastern sea border with North Korea minutes after its ballistic missile launch. (Yonhap)

I had no idea that the US Navy had such a regulation:

Sailors aboard the cruiser Shiloh during the 26-month command of Capt. Adam M. Aycock often worried about the CO’s use of one of the Navy’s most arcane punishments: confinement for three days in the brig while being fed only bread and water.

Over time, Aycock’s proclivity for using bread and water to punish junior sailors became well-known on the Yokosuka, Japan, waterfront, where the Shiloh is based, according to sailor comments in three of the ship’s command climate surveys.

“I do not wear my ballcap at the (Navy Exchange store),” one sailor wrote. “Even the taxi drivers on base know us for being the ‘USS Bread and Water.’”  [Navy Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but I am willing to be that many servicemembers would rather suck up three days of bread and water instead of getting hit with extra duty and restriction of up to 45 days through the Article 15 process.

South Korea is interested in fielding the Aegis SM-3 capability, but it seems to me it would make more sense for them to field a land-based Aegis Ashore that could be installed to provide persistent missile defense in the middle of the country:

Seoul needs to deploy U.S. ship-based missile interceptors known as RIM-161 Standard Missile 3s, or SM-3s, to complete its low-altitude air and missile defense system against North Korea, according to an internal report by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense that was exclusively acquired by the JoongAng Ilbo Monday.

Drafted in August and handed over by Bareun Party Rep. Kim Young-woo, a member on the parliamentary National Defense Committee, the report acknowledges that South Korea’s current low-altitude defense system, also known as the Korea Air and Missile Defense, or KAMD, is unable to intercept some North Korean missiles if they were to fly across the border.

A local government source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the military wrote the report in order to start policy discussions on how Seoul could deploy the SM-3s, which are said to be able to target any North Korean missile fired from a normal angle, filling in a gap left by the country’s current defense systems, mainly comprising the Patriot and Cheongung interceptors that can target an incoming missile up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) high, and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) missile shield, which covers 40 to 150 kilometers in altitude.

An SM-3 has a range of up to 400 kilometers and can travel as far as 700 kilometers away.

The ministry stressed that the defense system would especially come in handy if North Korea carries out an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, as it recently threatened.

Under that scenario, the ministry said it was likely North Korea would blast its warhead-triggered EMP about 60 to 80 kilometers above ground, which can effectively be targeted by an SM-3.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It seems like the odds of finding someone alive seem pretty remote, but lets all hope at least one of the missing is alive:

Ongoing search-and-rescue efforts for 10 missing USS John S. McCain sailors have turned up a number of bodies, Adm. Scott Swift, Pacific Fleet commander, told reporters Tuesday evening.

The Yokosuka-based guided-missile destroyer was traveling to Singapore for a routine port visit early Monday when it collided with the Liberian-flagged Alnic MC oil tanker east of the city-state, injuring five sailors and leaving 10 missing.

During a news conference at Singapore’s Changi Naval Base, Swift said that Navy and Marine Corps divers discovered remains while searching sealed compartments in damaged areas of the ship. The Malaysian navy also discovered remains that could be one of the missing sailors.

“We have a report from the Malaysians … that they have found a body,” Swift said. “We are in the process of effecting the transfer of that body so we can start the identification process and determine whether it’s one of the missing sailors or not. We have discovered other bodies during the diving on McCain today. The divers were able to locate some remains in those sealed compartments during their search.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but initially the damage to the ship at least visually doesn’t appear as bad as with the USS Fitzgerald.

I would think the Japanese would want the Aegis ships deployed more to collect data on the rocket launch with their radars:

The Japanese government is mulling deploying Aegis destroyers in the East Sea and the East China Sea to intercept a long-range rocket North Korea plans to launch around the 70th anniversary of its ruling Workers’ Party on October 10.

Japan’s Sankei Shimbun daily reported on Sunday that Tokyo is considering deploying the destroyers equipped with sea-based missile defenses to the East Sea and the East China Sea to prevent the North’s rocket or its debris from falling on Japanese territory.

The paper said Japan is also considering deploying the Air Self-Defense Forces’ surface-to-air guided Patriot missiles in the area near the capital city and Okinawa.  [KBS World Radio]