N.Korea launched 10 missiles: Russian armed forces

Reuters AlertNet ^ | 05 Jul 2006 | Reuters

[rhainw]

MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) - North Korea launched a total of 10 missiles, the head of Russia's General Staff was quoted as saying on Wednesday, but he could not confirm how many of them were intercontinental weapons.

"Our control systems can confirm that the rockets were launched," he told reporters in the town of Chita, near the Mongolian border, Interfax news agency reported.

"Ten rockets were launched. According to one set of data, they were rockets of different classes. According to another set of data, they were all intercontinental. I can only say what class they were after receiving the technical data."

[rhainw]

Hmmm ok gets worse every time the facts are updated.

[Spktyr]

Nah, the Russians just have bad equipment. Sounds like their orbital IR sensors (AKA launch flare detectors) aren't all that great.

[Jeff Gordon]

gets worse every time the facts are updated

"facts" from a Russian General?
"facts" from Reuters?

I don't think so. Now if the NYT prints this I will know for sure it is a lie.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #1

Actually, sometime last night(U.S. time) it was 6, then 10, and updated to 6 confirmed, while suspicions on 6 more. Now it is 10, according to Russians. So the number have been wandering somewhere between 6 and 12 for some time.

[Actually_in_Tokyo]

JP TV is reporting that a 7th missile was launched after 5:00 pm JP time, about one hour ago.

[rhainw]

They have just launched another one CNN TV reports. IN the air for 6 minutes in total. Breaking now.

[stephenjohnbanker]

ROFL!

[BigSkyFreeper]

Actually, sometime last night(U.S. time) it was 6, then 10, and updated to 6 confirmed, while suspicions on 6 more. Now it is 10, according to Russians. So the number have been wandering somewhere between 6 and 12 for some time.

One report said a total of 12 missiles had been fired.

[austinaero]

6 minutes is quite a bit of time.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Maybe the Taepodong had babies???

[justa-hairyape]

How do we know that their Long Range ICBM failed ? Are we assuming that, since it stopped showing on radar, it therefore must have failed ? We have had Russians and Iranians claim to possess a new stealth missile technology. Have we ever actually figured out what at least the Russians were talking about ?

[BigSkyFreeper]

I don't think so. Now if the NYT prints this I will know for sure it is a lie.

A lie or a leak, depending on the story.

[river rat]

The dog eating bastards must keep launching until they get one that works -- or the Islamists will cancel orders...

Semper Fi

[Spktyr]

Not so much.

For some unknown reason, NK is slowly firing off what appears to be their entire stock of ready missiles for no apparent reason.

They're not firing enough of them at one time to really stress their command and control systems, IMHO. They're also firing too many of their proven types for a test to make sense either.

[Spktyr]

This would be because observers and satellites saw the thing explode.

The Russian stealth concepts appear to either not work or show a complete misunderstanding of the concept.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The little SOB is probably telling his poor, brainwashed prisoners, er, citizens, that North Korea is under attack and he's defending them.

[Cindy]

UPDATE:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1660536/posts?page=16#16

[BigSkyFreeper]

How do we know that their Long Range ICBM failed ?

We have eyes in the sky above the Korean peninsula.

[justa-hairyape]

So we have an actual visual of at least the first stage exploding. Well that figures. Lots of 'noise' in an explosion. FYI - The initial scientific papers describing stealth concepts were done by Russian scientist many decades ago. They should understand the concept completely. In addition to that, a US stealth fighter was shot down over Serbia or Kosovo or Bosnia. Don't remember which. The east acquired examples of our actual stealth components. At the time many here wondered why Crinton had not destroyed the plane and the immediate vicinity of the plane crash.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

How do we know that their Long Range ICBM failed ?

No. ballistic. missile. is. stealthy. during. boost. full. stop.

This thing failed 35-40 seconds TALO (time after lift off); it would need minutes of boost to go intercontinental.

Actually, reentry vehicles (RVs) are almost inherently stealthy, the "heat shield" (the carbon/phenolic ablative coating) absorbs radar waves very readily and its formulation can be easily modified to make it nearly optimal. Aerodynamic considerations are actually less constraining than on an aircraft. The U.S. began modifying the shape of its RVs at least as early as 1958 to reduce their radar cross section, so one can credit the Ruskies with some capability.

That said, I believe the Russian claim is not "stealth" but evasiveness, they claim that their reentry systems maneuver during mid course making discrimination, tracking and interception much more difficult. On the down side for the attacker, it also makes hitting what you aim at proportionately more difficult as well. I suspect the Russian claim is a public relations bluff, although they may have some experimental systems under development.