Free Republic

North Korea fired what appeared to be several land-to-ship missiles off its east coast on Thursday, South Korea's military said, the latest in a fast-paced series of missile tests defying world pressure to rein in its weapons program. The launches come less than a week after the United Nations Security Council passed fresh sanctions on the reclusive state, which said it would continued to pursue its nuclear and missile program without delay. The warship-killing cruise missiles were launched Thursday morning from the North Korean coastal city of Wonsan and flew about 200km, South Korea's Office of Joint Chiefs of Staff...

The French Navy now has at its disposal a new sea-based deep-strike capability. The first MdCN naval cruise missiles quietly entered service in February as part of the combat systems carried by the force’s first FREMM multimission frigates. FREMM frigate Provence (© FRENCH NAVY) Six FREMMs to carry cruise missiles by 2019 The French fleet will soon count three FREMM frigates armed with MdCN cruise missiles, the first of their type to be developed in Europe. The Aquitaine and Provence followed by the Languedoc which is scheduled to enter service in a few weeks. By 2019, these three will be...

Japan has started contemplating future deployment of cruise missiles in response to North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches and nuclear tests, a government official said on Friday. The government is eager to set aside spending to study the potential acquisition of a capability to strike enemy launch sites, possibly in a draft state budget for fiscal 2018, the official told Kyodo News, speaking on condition of anonymity. However, there are concerns within the government and ruling parties that adoption of strike capability would run contrary to Japan’s exclusively defence-oriented posture and trigger a backlash from opposition parties. According to the...

South Korea has developed a new pre-emptive strike weapon in the face of North Korean threats. The weapon, a tactical ship-to-ground guided missile, will enhance South Korea’s ability to strike North Korea’s critical military facilities in the event of a crisis on the peninsula. South Korea will begin mass-producing the missiles next year, reports the Yonhap News Agency, citing the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the South Korean arms procurement agency. The missiles, which can be fired using either inclined or vertical launch systems, will boost the firepower of the South’s next-generation frigates. The inclined launch units will be used...

@aleklicho art Argentina was almost the first country to develop a small, supersonic cruise missile. Way back in 1960. On May 30 of that year, Dr. Reimar Horten — a former warplane designer for Nazi Germany — met with officials at the Aerotechnical Institute of Argentina’s Military Aircraft Factory, or FMA, to propose what he described as “supersonic flying bomb.” Horten had emigrated to Argentina after World War II, leaving behind his brother, an equally accomplished aeronautical engineer. Although Horten cast his flying bomb as a logical evolution of Germany’s wartime V-1 buzz bomb, in concept it had more in common with today’s supersonic...

Russia has developed an “unstoppable” hypersonic missile capable of destroying the Royal Navy’s most sophisticated warships, the Sunday People can reveal. Kremlin military chiefs claim they have built an anti-ship cruise missile capable of travelling at between five and six times the speed of sound - 3,800 mph to 4,600mph. Now experts fear the missile, called the Zircon, could sink the Royal Navy ’s two new £6bn state-of-the air aircraft carriers in a single strike. The missile flies more than twice the speed of a sniper’s bullet and is almost impossible to stop. The cruise missile is powered by a...

China's militarization of its man-made islands in the South China Sea and the resulting anti-access/area-denial bubbles that will cover massive swaths of that body of water in the not-so-distant future, has Vietnam shopping for weaponry that can counter Beijing's grand plans. Hanoi has already forward-deployed Israeli-built GPS-guided Extra multiple launch rocket systems to their own islands in the South China Sea—a weapon system that could rain down rockets on China's outposts with little warning. Now, Vietnam is looking towards Israel once again for its weapons needs, this time to provide an standoff multi-role cruise missile that can strike targets over...

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal to ensure it is at the "top of the pack," saying the United States has fallen behind in its atomic weapons capacity. In a Reuters interview, Trump also complained about Russian deployment of a cruise missile in violation of an arms control treaty and said he would raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin when and if they meet. On another front, Trump said China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea "very easily if they want to," ratcheting up pressure...

The use of Russia’s Bastion coastal missile systems in Syria was the first combat use of this system against ground targets. It was aimed at testing the capabilities of the system in real combat conditions, said Konstantin Sivkov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems. Earlier on the day, Russian Defense Minister said Bastion systems had been deployed to Syria. The minister said they had conducted strikes on terrorist targets in Syria. "These complexes are able to destroy both sea and ground targets at a distance of 350 kilometers at sea and almost 450 kilometers over land," Shoigu said at...

Against the backdrop of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military modernization and growing precision strike capabilities, some media reports indicate that Taipei may have plans to produce 10 to 60 Hsiung Feng III (HF-3; 雄風三型, “Brave Wind III”) supersonic missiles with a range above 162 nautical miles under projects codenamed “God’s Spear” (神戈計劃) and “Coiled Dragon” (蟠龍計畫), respectively. According to the media, an “HF-3 extended range model missile” (雄三增程型飛彈) project may be in the works and a testing phase is slated for completion by the middle of 2017, to enter mass production in 2018. The missiles could be deployed in...

Asia's most powerful warship has been shrouded in mystery since construction began last year at the Jiangnan Changxing shipyards. Known as a Type 005 destroyer, the vessel is said to be armed with electromagnetic railguns that can shoot down missiles and attack land targets. Now, leaked images give a glimpse of the battle ship's progress - there appears to be four portals on the stern for sensors and weapons - along with up to 128 vertical launch system cells for missiles. Construction of this 175 meter long ship began in 2015, but officials have been very careful not to reveal...

SEOUL, Oct. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to buy more Taurus air-to-surface missiles that can strike North Korea's nuclear and missile facilities, military officials said Tuesday. "The military has recently decided to acquire 90 more Taurus missiles to further beef up its anti-nuclear and anti-missile capabilities. The process to purchase the additional missiles is underway," a defense ministry official told Yonhap News Agency. Some 170 Taurus missiles are already scheduled to be deployed with the Air Force. The North's fifth nuclear test last month and continued ballistic missile launches resulted in the additional purchase. When the deployment is complete,...

India will soon inform Russia that it seeks to buy “Kalibr” cruise missiles, equipped with the latest high precision guidance system, and capable of striking ground targets. The issue will be discussed during of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forthcoming visit to India, an informed diplomatic source told “Novosti.” Military analysts believe that with the advent of the latest “Kalibrs”, the Indian military will acquire new combat capabilities and be able to prepare to locally develop the cruise missile. The proposal has been prepared by India and will be officially handed over during President Putin’s visit, said the source of “Izvestia”....

Russia is finalizing the trials of a sophisticated cruise missile designated as Kh-32 and intended to equip the Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic long-range bomber fleet, according to the Izvestia daily. The cutting-edge missile is virtually invulnerable to ground-based air defenses and interceptors of a potential adversary. Once launched, the product of the Raduga Design Bureau climbs to an altitude of 40 km, to the stratosphere, to dive on the target at a steep angle. Picture by Mikhail Polyakov, http://russianplanes.net A source in Russia’s defense industry has confirmed that the Kh-32 missile’s tests were in final stages, and the weapon itself was...

China is eyeing the use of a high level of artificial intelligence and automation for its next generation of cruise missiles, a senior designer was quoted as saying on Friday. "We plan to adopt a 'plug and play' approach in the development of new cruise missiles, which will enable our military commanders to tailor-make missiles in accordance with combat conditions," Wang Changqing of the China Aerospace and Industry Corp told the state-run China Daily newspaper. "Moreover, our future cruise missiles will have a very high level of artificial intelligence and automation," Wang added. "They will allow commanders to control them...

SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to deploy dozens of "jamming proof" air-to-ground guided missiles that can be carried on its F-15K fighters in a bid to bolster its strike capabilities amid mounting military threats from North Korea, military officials said Tuesday. Dozens of Taurus missiles will be brought in from Germany by the end of this year as the U.S. government has recently approved the exports of critical military GPS receivers which can be attached to war planes, according to the military. The receivers are vital because they are not affected by North Korean GPS jamming. The...

PARIS --- Three years after initial ground trials began in Italy, a Eurofighter Typhoon trials aircraft has carried out its first live firing of a Storm Shadow cruise missile. “Storm Shadow has been fired from Eurofighter Typhoon and the integration programme is on track,” BAE Systems Senior Communications Advisor – Combat Air Matthew Squires said in a July 6 e-mail. “The functional test referred to in our previous statement was a firing of a Storm Shadow weapon from a development aircraft which took place in June 2016.” He added that “This is the position of Eurofighter and the [Eurofighter Partner...

British soldiers have provided Saudi Arabian forces with training for cruise missile and artillery attacks since Riyadh entered the war in Yemen, despite international condemnation of the kingdom’s air strikes and claims they have killed scores of civilians. The details of the training were revealed on Friday after freedom of information requests, made by the human rights group Reprieve and seen by Middle East Eye, were released. The Ministry of Defence has maintained that British forces are not helping Saudi forces direct strikes, select targets or conduct operations in Yemen. However, information in the FoI shows how close military cooperation...

Israel’s Navy conducted a successful test firing of surface-surface missiles from a Saar 5 corvette. The test included the launch of missile RGM-84 Harpoon and a new weapon, assumed to be an indigenous surface-to-surface missile developed for the Israel Navy by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The blurred images shown on this video depict a missile longer and faster than the Harpoon, possibly driven by ram-air propulsion to achieve supersonic cruise and extended range. IAI has been known to continue the development of surface-to-surface missiles beyond Gabriel 3, the latest variant of the Gabriel family that entered service in the early...

Russia plans to upgrade its Project 971 nuclear submarines with Kalibr cruise missiles, Rear Admiral Viktor Kochemazov said in a radio interview on Saturday. “The Kalibr cruise missile is a highly efficient weapon as was amply proved by the recent launches from the Rostov-on-Don submarine. Kalibr missiles will be installed on the modernized Project 971 submarines,” Admiral Kochemazov told Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei (Russian News Service) radio station in Moscow. Project 971 Shchuka-B or Bars, designated by NATO as the Akula, are the codenames for the multirole nuclear-powered attack submarines which are the backbone of Russia's maritime nuclear deterrence. First deployed...