US detects 'highly unusual' North Korean submarine activity
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN)The US military has detected "highly unusual and unprecedented levels" of North Korean submarine activity and evidence of an "ejection test" in the days following Pyongyang's second intercontinental ballistic missile launch this month, a defense official told CNN on Monday.
An ejection test examines a missile's "cold-launch system," which uses high pressure steam to propel a missile out of the launch canister into the air before its engines ignite, preventing damage to the submarine or submersible barge that would launch the missile.
Carried out on land at Sinpo Naval Shipyard, Sunday's ejection test is the third time this month -- and fourth this year -- that North Korea has conducted a trial of the missile component that is critical to developing submarine launch capabilities, according to the US defense official.
Coupled with reports of increased submarine activity, news of another ejection test comes amid concerns over North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have the range to hit major US cities on Friday.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/31/politics/north-korea-ejection-test-submarine-activity/index.html
bucolic_frolic
(42,478 posts)" ... appears to have the range to hit major US cities on Friday."
bathroommonkey76
(3,827 posts)Wait till they park one off the coast of VA and hit us with one of those missiles- Trump's going to take us into a war in the next few months.
KeepItReal
(7,769 posts)I'm old enough to remember the principles of Mutually Assured Destruction.
One launch in anger by NK of an actual nuke at us or Japan or ROK ends them as a nation.
I'm more worried about non-state actors terrorizing the general populous....and Trump's sabre rattling.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,605 posts)RussBLib
(8,950 posts)can you say for certainty that Trump isn't crazy enough to launch a first-strike?
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)politicat
(9,808 posts)He's taking SK and Japan (at least) hostages to get his place, but he's not stupid. Impulsive, single-minded, thoroughly indoctrinated, convinced he's an incarnation of godhead... but he's not stupid.
I keep thinking about the NK chapter in World War Z, which uses the fictional idea of zombies as a lens to look at real world issues (in fictional form.) I won't spoil it if you haven't read it (but seriously, do, and read it as serious lit; look for the resonances) but that chapter changed the way I think about the real world DPRK and how they're developing weapons.
Their submarines, fortunately, are not nearly so sneaky as they think they are (and if the open source data is correct, they know they aren't as sneaky as they need to be). They don't have much water in which to play, which is good for the rest of the planet.
adigal
(7,581 posts)You think they havent seen what we did to Iraq, who had no nukes? They are telling us, "Don't you dare!" And as crazy as they are, our Orange 🍊 Idiot isnt any saner.
ClusterFreak
(3,112 posts)Hey CNN staffer... try this instead: "North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday", and then the rest of the sentence. See if that makes a little more sense.
relayerbob
(6,504 posts)bathroommonkey76
(3,827 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)Doug the Dem
(1,297 posts)Translation: They didn't sink within five minutes of leaving port.
Best_man23
(4,872 posts)It said it had never been submerged and only ran aground once.
hunter
(38,240 posts)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot
North Korea's larger boats are Chinese copies of Soviet copies of Second World War German Type XX1 U-Boats.
Their smaller indigenously-built submarines are less comfortable than that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sang-O-class_submarine
The submarine experimenting with missile launchers is a different beast, possibly derived from ten Soviet Golf class submarines built in the 'fifties and sold to North Korea in the 'nineties as scrap metal.
Old Vet
(2,001 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(56,710 posts)I don't mean, why is DU reporting this, but why is "a defense official" reporting this?
Shouldn't we shut up about our capabilities?
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)The underwater listening devices, satellites that can detect missile launches and signal intelligence that can hear everything North Korean says by radio or other forms of electronic communication is all relatively old technology, at least a decade old if not older.
cstanleytech
(26,026 posts)and we all know how that clusterfuck turned out.
EX500rider
(10,448 posts)cstanleytech
(26,026 posts)thing.
Besides I would not wager money on those tests being weapons that they were supplied rather than built.
In other words I think we are being played by either China or Russia and they are using or trying to use N Korea as a distraction.
From what?
For China mainly their attempted expansion into the South China Sea.
For Russia? Their attempted conquest of their varies neighbors mainly the Ukraine right now.
EX500rider
(10,448 posts)....or that one of the tests would have been a fizzle as it was.
I also doubt China or Russia would be too excited to hand over nukes to the crazy leader of the hermit kingdom that they share a border with.
cstanleytech
(26,026 posts)making the U.S. and other countries in the region at risk nervous.
RainCaster
(10,584 posts)He will tweet that guy into oblivion.