North Korea Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

nicky

Junior Member
Another huge success of Kim!

Funny, but reports still associate North Korean submarine missile test site with Sinpo - even at this site?!

2016-08-25-01-03.jpg 2016-08-25-01-15.jpg 2016-08-25-01-24.jpg
 
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nicky

Junior Member
KalmaChaho.1472095819.jpg
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
North Korean Submarine Missile Launch Could Complicate BMD Strategy

The successful launch by North Korea of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is a significant achievement and, if deployed, could complicate U.S. and allied efforts to provide an umbrella of ballistic-missile defense (BMD) in the Northwestern Pacific.

“U.S. Strategic Command systems detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean submarine missile launch at 3:29 p.m. CDT, August 23, 2016,” said an Aug. 23 U.S. Pacific Command statement. “The launch of a presumed KN-11 submarine-launched ballistic missile occurred off the coast of Sinpo. The missile was tracked over and into the Sea of Japan, approximately 300 miles off the coast of North Korea. The North American Aerospace Defense Command determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America.”

North Korea’s ballistic-missile and nuclear weapons programs have long been a concern of the United States and allied nations in the Pacific region, and even pose a potential future threat to the continental United States. If its SLBM capability is developed and deployed, North Korea would join an exclusive club comprising the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China.

The missile probably was launched from an ex-Russian modified Golf II-class ballistic-missile diesel-electric submarine (SSB). The Golf-class SSBs were first built in 1958 by the Soviet Union. The initial variant, the Golf I, could launch three SS-N-4 nuclear warhead-tipped missiles, but it had to surface to do so. The Golf II variant had the capability of launching three SS-N-5 missiles while submerged.

By the 1980s, the Golf class SSBs had been superseded on SLBM patrols by their nuclear-powered successors in the Atlantic and Pacific, but were believed by Western analysts to have retained a theater nuclear role in the Baltic Sea and the Sea of Japan. They were withdrawn from service by 1990. After the end of the Cold War, North Korea in 1993 acquired several Golf-class SSBs from Russia, which was in the process of reducing the size of its fleet.

According to a November 2014 article by the Yonhap News Agency in South Korea, citing South Korean officials, the North Koreans had modified one Golf SSB and launched the submarine. Two previous attempts to launch a missile from the submarine since 2015 failed.

It is unknown if North Korea has succeeded in developing a warhead for the KN-11, which is smaller than the nation’s land-launched ballistic missiles, but the country has claimed that it has miniaturized a nuclear warhead.

An SSB, by its ability to deploy at sea and maintain covertness much of the time, would make it a more difficult target to destroy. Diesel-electric submarines, even ones as old as the Golf, are difficult to passively track when submerged and their snorkels are difficult to detect in choppy waters such as the Sea of Japan. North Korea has a sizeable fleet of old Soviet Romeo-class diesel-electric submarines whose presence could make it difficult for anti-submarine forces to isolate a Golf SSB from other submarines.

The ability to deploy nuclear-tipped missiles at sea would enable North Korea to pose a threat from various axes to Japan and South Korea and their U.S. bases, making detection and countering of a launch more difficult. The U.S. Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force maintain patrols of BMD destroyers equipped with the Aegis Combat System and Standard missiles. South Korea has deployed Patriot missiles and has decided to deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense BMD missile, but facing a threat from yet another direction would tax its defenses even more.

An SSB also is able to move closer to an enemy’s shore and reduce the time of flight for its missiles, reducing the reaction time for defenses.

“This development would potentially give the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] a relatively secure second-strike capability,” said Bryan Clark, a naval analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. “This could reduce the value of the U.S. nuclear deterrent against the North Koreans. That would be significant, particularly in relation to our extended deterrence assurances to Japan and the [Republic of Korea]. If the DPRK were to threaten one of them with nuclear attack, the U.S. strategic arsenal could not prevent the DPRK from launching the strike with its [ballistic-missile submarine].

“The [ballistic-missile submarine] is less of a challenge for U.S. nuclear deterrence,” Clark said. “If North Korea were to attack the United States directly, it would not be able to eliminate any leg of the U.S. nuclear triad and the attack could be small enough to be defeated by U.S. missile defenses.

The United States could then launch a devastating retaliatory strike. The fact DPRK might be able to respond with a small number of SLBMs against the U.S. afterward would not be a deterrent on the U.S. response.

“The DPRK [ballistic-missile submarine] may also introduce a new requirement to find and track it with U.S. SSNs [attack submarines], as we did against the Soviets during the Cold War,” said Clark, a former U.S. Navy submariner. “This would further tax an already stressed submarine force.”

Although in theory North Korea could deploy an SSB off the coast of the United States, it would be difficult in the near term for the country to sustain a credible threat to the U.S. West Coast.

For a North Korean submarine to operate far from home would be a significant change to past practice and would present command-and-control issues to the North Korean government, which keeps its forces on a tight tether.

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SouthernSky

Junior Member
North Korea's SLBM program progresses, but still a long road ahead.

By
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26 August 2016


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The success of North Korea’s latest submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test suggests the program may be progressing faster than originally expected. However, this does not mean it will be ready next week, next month, or even next year. Rather, the pace and method of the North’s SLBM testing would suggest possible deployment in an initial operational capability by the second half of 2018 at the earliest. Given Russia’s history of SLBM development—a model Pyongyang seems to be following—even after two years and 12 tests of varying degrees of “success” after its first successful launch from a submarine, there were still glitches to be found and fixed. The North Koreans may skip some of these tests, but rushing development almost certainly sacrifices reliability, and fielding inadequately tested or unreliable missiles could result in sunken submarines—a high price to pay when the North has only a single ballistic missile submarine of limited capability.

Furthermore, while North Korea’s single GORAE-class submarine could theoretically be used to field an SLBM, Pyongyang could not count on a single prototype submarine with one to two missiles to carry out wartime missions. Such a deployment would be more of a bluff than a game-changing threat. Moreover, the submarine has only been put to sea for short periods in coastal waters to verify basic seaworthiness and conduct a few launches. If it is meant to be an operational boat, it will need realistic testing in operational environments, such as exercises with its surface fleet. Furthermore, the North will almost certainly want to refine this design before trying to deploy an operational system.

While 38 North has reported on the North’s
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to construct new submarines—upgrading, modernizing and erecting new construction halls at the Sinpo South Shipyard—so far no information is known about whether actual submarine construction has begun. A new submarine could probably be built within a two to three year time frame, but the likelihood of building new models without further testing and refinement of the experimental GORAE-class seems low.

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Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Another huge success of Kim!

Funny, but reports still associate North Korean submarine missile test site with Sinpo - even at this site?!

View attachment 31106 View attachment 31108
Both the missile and the sub look...well, weird for a sub-surface launch.

I am wondering if that thing has to surface and then launch like some of the relly early US and Russian vessels had to do 60 years ago?
 

kriss

Junior Member
Registered Member
Just saw it on the news. National environment department is on level 2 emergency response status. Feedback of auto monitoring station in northeast and shandong is nominal. Emergency radiation inspection along the border is currently undergoing.
 
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