North Korea has recently test-fired a new anti-ship rocket that will be deployed “before long” at its naval units, according to its state media on Feb. 7, 2015. The photo here shows North Korea leader Kim Jong-un watching the test-firing, though details on when and where it was conducted are not available. (Yonhap)
I read reports like this and it just makes me wonder if this a North Korean operation to convince our intelligence operatives that they have more advanced capability then they really have. Firing missiles from a submarine is highly complex technology that I would be surprised to see the North Koreans being able to do unless someone helps them do it:
North Korea appears to be trying to equip a submarine to make it capable of firing missiles, a U.S think tank said Thursday, warning such hard-to-detect, missile-capable submarines would pose significant threats to South Korea.
The website 38 North, run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said it reached the assessment based on commercial satellite imagery taken of the Sinpo South Shipyard on the east coast between July and December.
Imagery from Dec. 18 shows a rectangular opening, about 4.25 meters long and 2.25 meters wide, on top of the conning tower of a submarine, and the opening is believed to be designed to house one to two small vertical missile launch tubes, the website said, citing analysis by Joseph Bermudez, an expert on satellite imagery.
The imagery also showed workers moving around the area, equipment stored on the deck and a heavy-lift construction crane, the website said, adding that the only reasonable explanation for the crane’s presence is “continuing to work on fitting out the submarine.” [Korea Times]
South Korea’s military confirmed Sunday it has detected signs of North Korea’s development of a submarine-based ballistic missile launch system.
In a report to an opposition lawmaker, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said there is an indication that the North is developing a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).
“There is no intelligence yet that North Korea has an SLBM in operation. But the possibility of a North Korean submarine equipped with an SLBM has been detected recently,” the JCS said in the document submitted to Rep. Jin Sung-joon of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but developing a submarine based missile launch capability is very difficult and why so few nations have this capability. It just makes me wonder if the North Koreans are just putting out fake mock ups in order to confuse intelligence analysts. They have been accused of doing this in the past.
It looks like North Korea’s activities helping the Iranian military is continuing to expand:
An open-source intelligence publishing group says North Korea may be helping Iran build new rocket-launch facilities.
IHS Jane’s said Friday that a new rocket-launch pad was spotted by satellite in the city of Semnan some four hours east of the Iranian capital of Tehran. According to the London-based intelligence group, analysis suggests that Iran has been collaborating with North Korea to build the launch pad.
Jane’s said Iran made public its “Simorgh” space-launch vehicle (SLV) on February third but did not make public the location of the rocket’s launch complex.
Jane’s was quoted as saying that the platforms seen on the new gantry tower resemble those seen on the gantry tower at North Korea’s new launch pad at Tongchang and a drainage pit 170 meters in front of the pad also mirrors one at Pyongyang’s new west-coast launch site.
The group also said that the first stage of the Simorgh strongly resembles the North Korean Unha-Two, with four clustered engines and nearly the same dimensions. [KBS Global]
You can read more about North Korea and Iran’s military cooperation here, here, and here.
I went on Google Earth and did a little exploring around the Semnan area in Iran and was able to located the launch facility supposedly constructed by the North Koreans:
This launch facility is located way out in a very isolated desert area:
Here is the lonely base camp that I imagine must suck to be stationed at:
Here is the actual launch site itself:
Here are two launch sites from the North Korea and judging from the Google Earth imagery they actually don’t like all that much a like:
Can any readers make out obvious similarities from the Google Earth imagery because I sure can’t.
