Tag: missiles

China knows they have a huge disadvantage with the US in regards to space based sensors, imagery and communications and anti-satellite weapons is the way it is hoping to even the playing field.  However, if during a conflict they decided to extend the war into space the debris fields caused by them destroying satellites would make many of the orbits used by everyone on Earth unusable:

China recently conducted a flight test of a new missile capable of knocking out U.S. satellites as part of Beijing’s growing space warfare arsenal.

The test of a Dong Neng-3 exoatmospheric vehicle was carried out Oct. 30 from China’s Korla Missile Test Complex in western China, said two defense officials familiar with reports of the test.

A Chinese press report also provided details of what was said to be a missile defense interceptor flight test carried out Nov. 1. Photos of the missile’s contrails were posted online.

However, the defense officials said the DN-3 is primarily a direct-ascent missile designed to ram into satellites and destroy them, even if intelligence assessments hold that the weapon has some missile defense capabilities.

The DN-3 flight test was the eighth time China carried out an anti-satellite missile test. An earlier test occurred in July 2014, which China also asserted was a missile defense test.

State Department and Pentagon officials declined to comment on the anti-satellite test.

A Chinese Embassy spokesman said: “I don’t have detailed information about the missile test you mentioned.”

“China advocates for the peaceful use of outer space, and opposes space weaponization or arms race in space,” the spokesman said in an email.

A State official referred to a speech from February by Frank Rose, assistant secretary of State for arms control, verification and compliance, who commented on the 2014 test.

“Despite China’s claims that this was not an ASAT [anti-satellite] test; let me assure you the United States has high confidence in its assessment, that the event was indeed an ASAT test,” Rose said.  [Business Insider]

You can read the rest at the link.

https://twitter.com/freekorea_us/status/626342851081818112

A new type of anti-ship rocket, which is being deployed at the North’s naval units, is launched from a warship as the communist country conducts a test-firing drill of the rocket, in this photo released on June 15, 2015, by the North’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper. The paper, published by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea., did not report when the test was carried out. (Yonhap)

It looks like the North Koreans are sending a message that they are improving their anti-ship missile capabilities:

North Korea fired three short-range missiles into the East Sea on Sunday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The communist North “fired three KN-01 missiles from its eastern border town of Wonsan onto Mayang Island (in the East Sea) between 4:21 p.m. and 4:47 p.m. today,” the JCS said in a statement.

The launch is presumed to be Pyongyang’s additional test-firing of the anti-ship projectiles after two rounds of the same tests were carried out in February and last month, one of the JCS officers said, noting that the cruise missiles flew some 100 kilometers.

“Our military has been closely watching North Korea’s movements, and has maintained a full-fledged posture against their possible provocations,” the JCS said.  [Yonhap]

This does not surprise me at all because I doubted their launch claims from the beginning:

Photographs showing a North Korean missile launched from a submarine were manipulated by state propagandists and the country may be years away from developing such technology, analysts and a top U.S. military official said on Tuesday.
North Korea, sanctioned by the United States and United Nations for its missile and nuclear tests, said on May 9 it had successfully conducted an underwater test-fire of a submarine-launched ballistic missile which, if true, would indicate progress in its pursuit of missile-equipped submarines. (….)

But North Korea is still “many years” from developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles, U.S. Admiral James Winnefeld told an audience at the Centre for Strategic & International Studies in Washington on Tuesday.

“They have not gotten as far as their clever video editors and spinmeisters would have us believe,” said Winnefeld, who is vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Analysis seen by Reuters from German aerospace engineers Markus Schiller and Robert Schmucker of Schmucker Technologie appeared to support Winnefeld’s statement.

The Munich-based pair said photos of the launch were “strongly modified”, including reflections of the missile exhaust flame in the water which did not line up with the missile itself. [Reuters]

You can read more at the link. 

The North Koreans are claiming they have nuclear tipped missiles now:

 

A North Korean envoy says his country has developed nuclear missiles and is prepared to use them at any time.

North Korean Ambassador to Britain Hyun Hak Bong said in a recent interview with British broadcaster Sky News that his government would use the missiles in response to a nuclear attack by the United States.

Asked whether North Korea has the ability now to launch a nuclear missile, Hyun replied: “Any time. Any time. Yes.”

“If the United States strike us, we should strike back,” he said.

Asked if North Korea would only fire nuclear missiles in retaliation, Hyun replied: “We are a peace-loving people you know. We don’t want war but we are not afraid of war. This is our policy of the government.”

North Korea is thought to have a handful of crude nuclear bombs and has conducted three nuclear tests since 2006. But experts are divided on how far it has come in developing the technology needed to miniaturize warheads so they can be placed on missiles.   [Associated Press]

You can read the rest at the link, but South Korean intelligence does not think the North has advanced their nuclear weapons technology to be able to fit on a missile warhead.  One thing is clear though, even if they haven’t mastered the technology yet they are making it a national priority to do so.  This means the US military needs to plan for a nuclear North Korea in response.

Shown is a file photo of North Korea’s SA-5 ground-to-air missile at a military parade in Pyongyang on April 15, 2012. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on March 13, 2015 that North Korea had test-fired seven ground-to-air missiles into the East Sea the previous day in an apparent saber-rattling against the South Korean-U.S. joint military exercises, Key Resolve, which Pyongyang denounces as a rehearsal for invasion. (Yonhap)

The headline of this article is how 14 North Korean airman died during the unsuccessful 2009 rocket launch:

North Korea revealed Tuesday it lost 14 airmen while launching a long-range rocket in 2009, in a report on an inspection by the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, of a related military unit Monday.

Kim looked around a monument to honor the “stalwart fighters, who displayed the suicidal-attack spirit” at Unit 447 of the Air and Anti-Air Force, reported the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

The monument commemorates the “heroic feats performed by the 14 fighter pilots in the operation to ensure the successful launch of satellite Kwangmyongsong-2,” said the KCNA. It did not specify how they died.

In April 2009, Kim observed the launch of the rocket, which Pyongyang claims was aimed at sending a satellite into orbit, along with his father and then-leader Kim Jong-il. The launch was unsuccessful.

Kim praised Unit 447 as the “high pride” of the country.  [Korea Herald]

I can only guess how this many people died during a rocket launch.  Did the launch go off unexpectedly early and workers were still near the pad?  Who knows.  However what I found of the most interest is how Kim Jong-un is emphasizing tree planting:

He said the unit also needs to play a role in leading in his campaign for forest restoration, according to the KCNA.

He planted ginkgo and other types of trees himself during his so-called field guidance at the unit on Monday, which the KCNA called a significant tree-planting day.

This is actually something I would not mind the international community helping the North Koreans with.  Sending tree huggers international workers to help plant trees in North Korea would have huge environmental payoffs and over time would be one less thing the South Korean government would have to worry about when unification comes.  This seems like better engagement with North Korea than giving free food to their military or free money to the regime to buy luxury items.

North Korea’s war on fish continues in the East Sea:

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea and vowed “merciless” retaliation Monday as the US and South Korea kicked off joint military drills denounced by Pyongyang as recklessly confrontational.

The annual exercises always trigger a surge in military tensions and warlike rhetoric on the divided peninsula, and analysts saw the North’s missile tests as a prelude to a concerted campaign of sabre-rattling.

“If there is a particularly sharp escalation, we could see the North orchestrating some kind of clash on the maritime border,” said Jeung Young-Tae, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.  [AFP]

You can read more at the link, but the Yellow Sea has been quiet for a while now so it would not be too shocking if they try something over there next.

I always wonder if these tests are just highly choreographed deception operations to make us think the North Koreans have more capability then they really do?

North Korea appears to have conducted a test of a missile ejection launcher that helps fire missiles from submarines, South Korean military sources said Friday.

The communist North “tested the ejection launcher from the seashore near the Sinpo South Shipyard on Jan. 23 for missiles that can be fired from submarines,” one military source here said, requesting anonymity.

The ejection test last month from the North’s northeast coast simulated the initial stage of boosting a missile out of a submarine launch tube, the source said.

According to South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials, the North has been developing a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in a move to boost its underwater missile strike capabilities after launching a new 2,500-ton submarine last year.

The North’s move appears to be part of its efforts to equip its missiles with miniaturized nuclear bombs, raising further concerns over the North’s evolving missile and nuclear threats, say North Korean watchers.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.