August 1998 North Korea sent a Taepo Dong over Japan.
As said earlier, and the FR moderators I believe agree, enough of the jokes about the name of the North Korean missile, as silly as it sounds. This joke is way old. Take that to a humor thread if you have to, please. Or if you want to freepmail yourself with it, have a grand time.
Serious comments to this thread, and the efforts made to find and translate these articles before they appear in the domestic US press; thanks. --AIT
The ship's arrival at Sasebo Naval Base triggered media speculation about its mission, with most concluding that its assignment was to help monitor missile movements in the western Pacific-specifically, the test flight of North Korea's new Taepo Dong-2, which U.S. intelligence officials said could reach Alaska and Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam. The 'USNS Invincible' is one of 11 T-T-AGOS and SWATH surveillance vessels operated for the Navy's Military Sealift Command by Maersk Line Ltd. AMO represents the licensed officers on the vessels. The 'USNS Invincible' is fitted with the "Cobra Gemini" intelligence-gathering system developed specifically to monitor electronic signals from short, medium, and intermediate range ballistic missiles. Dub Allen, a spokesman for MSC in Yokohama, told Pacific Stars And Stripes that the 'USNS Invincible' called at Sasebo "to take on fuel and give the sailors some rest." Allen would not confirm the ship's mission. He said only: "Our ships are forward deployed in the truest sense of the word. They operate where they're needed." A sampling of the local news coverage was forwarded to AMO headquarters by Captain Mark Richardson, Master on the 'USNS Invincible'. "You can see that, although small, we're important," Richardson noted. |
JDS MYOKOH (DDG 175), a KONGOH class AEGIS destroyer currently in service with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). Built at the Mitsubishi yards in Nagasaki, she was laid down on 8 April 1993, launched 5 October 1994, and commissioned 14 March 1996. MYOKOH displaces 7,250 t (9,485 t full load), is 161 m long overall, with a beam of 21 m and a draft of 6.2 m. She is powered by a four-engine gas turbine powerplant based around the LM2500 gas turbine (output: 100,000 hp) and has an official maximum speed of 30 knots. The ship has an effective range of 4500 nm (@ 20 knots) and a crew of 300. As an AEGIS destroyer, MYOKOH mounts the SPY-1D air defense radar system and the OPS - 28c anti-surface radar combined with the Mark 7 AEGIS fire control system. Her main armament is the MK41 VLS missile launcher (90 cells) mounting 74 Standard SM-2MR antiaircraft missiles. She also carries 16 ASROC antisubmarine missiles, dual 4-tube Harpoon SSM launchers, and two torpedo launchers. For close-in defense the ship is equipped with two 20mm Phalanx-type chain gun mounts, and the ship's main gun is the OTO 127 millimeter 54 caliber rapid fire gun. In August 1998, MYOKOH tracked a North Korean Taepo-Dong missile in flight over Japan but did not have the ability to intercept it.
KONGOH underway (.mov file).
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