Closing Velocity

North Korea Threatens More Nuclear & Missile Tests

Essentially saying to the world, "If you don't immediately apologize for condemning our ICBM test, we are going to test more ICBM's!":

North Korea threatened Wednesday to conduct nuclear and missile tests and start an uranium-enrichment program in addition to its existing plutonium-based one, unless the U.N. apologizes for criticizing its recent rocket launch, dramatically raising its stake in the worsening standoff over its atomic programs.

Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said in a statement the country "will be compelled to take additional self-defensive measures" unless the U.N. Security Council apologizes immediately. "The measures will include nuclear tests and test-firings of intercontinental ballistic missiles."

According to one analyst, missile preparations have already begun:

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the North appears to have already begun preparations to conduct nuclear and missile tests, given it is demanding "an unrealistic, unprecedented" demand—a U.N. apology.

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Thule: Welcome To The Top Of The World

 BMEWS Radar at Thule Air Base, Greenland

Great article in the Daily Mail on one of the unsung sentinels of US missile defense, the early warning radar at Thule Air Base, Greenland:

As we drive on, a disturbing buzzing and popping starts to come from the engine. The controls on the dashboard join in and the vehicle begins to judder. Our journey into this empty wasteland is starting to feel like an episode of The X Files.

'It's the radar,' she explains, pointing ahead of us, not very reassuringly. 'It does strange things to the electrics.'

I politely ask what the radar is likely to do to my insides.

'Best not to jump in front of it,' she warns.

When we reach the summit, there it is, standing guard - one of the most important and advanced pieces of American military hardware in the world, a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar. The size of a ten-storey building and glaringly hi-tech, the radar stands perched like a silent sentinel scanning the skies for anything coming over the top of the world.

Until its recent prominence as a critical part of our budding global missile defense system, Thule was best known as the site of one of the few "Broken Arrow" crises during the Cold War.

During the sixties, the US had an operational plan "Chrome Dome" whereby a dozen nuclear-armed B-52s were always on airborne alert to counter any Soviet first strike. Though unnamed, Chrome Dome is the central plot device in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove:

One of the underlying missions of Chrome Dome was "Hard Head" patrols over Thule, where one of these special B-52s would maintain visual contact with the airbase and its crucial radar. If the crew lost contact or saw a mushroom cloud over Thule, then they would proceed to attack the USSR with their nuclear package.

On January 21, 1968, one of these B-52s crashed on the frozen sea ice off Thule, scattering its four H-bombs. And one hydrogen bomb remains unaccounted for.

After the Thule accident, Chrome Dome was terminated.

So Thule has evolved from its Cold War roots. Once a guardian against --- and sacrificial tripwire for --- Mutually Assured Destruction, it is now on watch for limited ICBM threats from rogue nations.

And to all the chilly Thule airmen and contractors (coincidentally I recently received an email from a Closing Velocity fan up there), a hearty thanks and keep up the good work.

Stay warm...yet frosty.

UPDATE: The reader I mentioned above sent me a link to his photo album of life at Thule, including this incredible shot of an approaching storm:

Check out his whole album here, including some great shots of Greenland wildlife and the dramatic seasonal changes up there.

Video: US Navy "Stellar Daggers" Missile Defense Test

New video from last month's first ever double intercept of a short-range ballistic missile and a cruise missile by the Aegis destroyer USS Benfold off the coast of Los Angeles:

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No, We Can't: US Military Requests SBX Radar During North Korean Missile Launch, DENIED

SBX at Pearl Harbor, Going Nowhere

One of the immutable criticisms leveled at US missile defense by its skeptics is the lack of "operationally realistic testing." Until our ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) is perfected with 100% realistic testing, it is foolish to prematurely deploy it, they say.

But when given the extraordinarily rare opportunity to actually use OUR BEST MISSILE DEFENSE RADAR in a situation as operationally realistic as you can imagine, the Obama Administration orders the Sea-Based X-Band radar to stay tied to the dock at Pearl Harbor:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates denied permission for the U.S. Northern Command to use the Pentagon's most powerful sea-based radar to monitor North Korea's recent missile launch, precluding officials from collecting finely detailed launch data or testing the radar in a real-time crisis, current and former defense officials said.

While other sensors were on station to monitor the launch, SBX could have collected priceless intelligence about North Korea's rapidly maturing missile technology:

SBX, deployed in 2005, can track and identify warheads, decoys and debris in space with very high precision. Officials said the radar is so powerful it could detect a baseball hit out of a ballpark from more than 3,000 miles away, and that other radars used by the U.S. would not be able to provide the same level of detail about North Korea's missile capabilities.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, who until recently headed the Missile Defense Agency, said the SBX would have gathered data other U.S. systems could not.

"The sea-based X-band radar is clearly without a doubt the most powerful and capable sensor in all of our missile defense inventory," he said. "It is three or four more times powerful than other radars" in Asia, including Aegis-equipped ships, a Cobra Dane early warning radar in Alaska and a small X-band radar in northern Japan, he said.

Gen. Obering noted that the SBX was used by the U.S. Strategic Command to track a falling satellite and guide U.S. sea-based missile interceptors that destroyed it in February 2008.

And President Obama did not "listen to his commanders on the ground":

Jamie Graybeal, Northcom public affairs director, confirmed to The Washington Times that Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, the Northcom commander, requested the radar's use but referred all other questions to the Pentagon.

Why did Obama refuse Gen. Renuart's plea?

One current and two former specialists in strategic defenses said the [Obama] administration rejected the request because it feared that moving the huge floating radar system would be viewed by North Korea as provocative and upset diplomatic efforts aimed at restarting six-nation nuclear talks.

So using the SBX to simply observe a very provocative missile launch was itself deemed too damned provocative by Obama? And that it would have derailed disarmament talks? You mean those talks that have utterly fallen apart anyway?:

North Korea on Tuesday ordered international nuclear inspectors out of the country and said it would "never again" take part in denuclearization talks, dealing a harsh, early setback to the Obama administration's hopes of disarming the defiant regime.

Brilliant. Effin' brilliant.

The opportunity to pursue (now)demonstrably hopeless talks with Kim Jong-Il was deemed more valuable than collecting operationally realistic data and improving our defense against a growing threat. And the Hopes of naive diplomats outweigh urgent requests from military commanders. Change you can believe in.

UPDATE: Welcome, HotAir.

ArmsControlWonk takes a rather peculiar view on this: parking the SBX out in international waters on the other side of Japan is somehow more provocative and dangerous than skirting RC-135S Cobra Ball recon planes along North Korean airspace.

Ummm, WHAT?

Just days before launch, North Korea threatened to shoot down any US spy planes. And indeed, back in 2003, a Cobra Ball was intercepted by four North Korean MiGs in international airspace over the Sea of Japan. I'd say Kim perceives Cobra Balls as kinda-sorta provocative. Call me crazy.

In any case, two Cobra Balls were on station during this latest missile test, according to the Mainichi Daily. And lest there be any confusion, I'm glad they were there.

I just wish the SBX had been recording this launch as well. Better data = better missile defense.

Kinetic Energy Interceptor Simulates Launch Countdown

KEI on the pad (April 2009)

Really just a reason for me to post a cool pic, a Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) completed a "pathfinder" simulation as MDA prepares for the first KEI test flight later this year:

The KEI pathfinder missile, fully functional with the exception of inert motors, was tested with range instrumentation, launch operations personnel and launch procedures. This pathfinder vehicle test has validated launch operations activities in preparation for flight testing.

As you recall, Gates has placed a big bet on boost phase missile defense and KEI will be the boost phase workhorse:

KEI is designed to be a mobile, globally deployable missile defense system featuring MDA’s newest high acceleration booster. KEI will provide the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) with a capability to defeat long-range ballistic missiles during the boost, ascent, and midcourse phases of flight. By engaging hostile missiles in early stages of flight, KEI increases intercept opportunities and enhances the BMDS layered defensive capability.

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Gates Scrambles To Defend MDA Cuts

As justified outrage ensues over the Obama Administration's slashing of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) budget, Secretary of Defense Gates scrambles to sooth fears:

JUDY WOODRUFF: Quick question on missile defense. You are not cutting the entire thing, but there are significant cuts. Already, though, we're hearing senators both sides of the aisle, members of Congress saying this is going to hurt national security, hurt homeland security. What do you say to them?

ROBERT GATES: We have two threats: theater and tactical ballistic missiles and ballistic missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles from rogue states like North Korea. We are significantly increasing the missile defense capabilities to deal with the theater and tactical threat, from Iran or Hezbollah or others like that, in a number of different ways - a lot of money being added to the budget.

We are not cutting the number of interceptors in Alaska, we are going to fund - robustly fund research and development to keep enhancing their capabilities, we are keeping alive the airborne-laser program, we are just not buying a second research platform. We're going to make do with one 747 to do this research. The procurement program was completely out of control, with 20 747s and so on and so forth. So I think we are doing a lot, we do very well with terminal defense, with THAAD and the theater missile. We do very well at midcourse with the ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California.

Now, we're continuing to do research work on the boost phase, where they're just coming off the pad, and we have several programs, some of them classified, that are aimed at taking care of that. So I think we have really strongly supported missile defense, and I think that what we have taken out of the budget, frankly, were some experimental capabilities that were really not intended for the rogue-state missile threat but rather, a much larger threat. So I'm trying to conform our program to our policy. Our policy is to have a missile defense and it was - as it was in the Bush administration, our policy is to have a missile defense against rogue states, such as Iran and North Korea. That's what our program does.

That experimental capability to which Gates refers? Short of salvoing our entire inventory of Ground-based Interceptors (GBIs), the now-terminated Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) is the only solution on the drawing board to deal with the perennial boogeyman of missile defense skeptics --- deployed countermeasures.

The bet has apparently been made that by pursuing boost phase defense and popping ICBMs before they ever jettison a cloud of decoys, then there is no need for MKV (which is precisely the opposite conclusion Nathan Hodge at Danger Room reached).

Let's hope Gates' bet on boost phase pays off...

(h/t: reader PeterB. Thanks!)

Video: North Korea Tests Missile & Obama Guts Missile Defense

Some straightforward advocacy here. Please pass this video by FundOurTroops.org around if you care about missile defense:

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Tiresome: Russian Asserts Iran Is No Threat To US, Rebukes Obama

Ambassador Kislyak says "Nyet, You Can't"

Plying a gullible audience at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Russian Ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak harshly rebuked President Obama's recent reaffirmation in Prague of European missile defense to counter a growing Iranian missile threat:

Iran poses no threat to the United States, Russia said Tuesday, rebuffing a key argument of President Barack Obama on whether to go ahead with a European missile shield bitterly opposed by Moscow.

"I don't see any threat to the United States coming from Iran anytime soon," Kislyak told a conference of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

So, that's news, I suppose. But here's where paranoid Russian intransigence gets tiresome:

"It didn't accomplish a single stated goal that we were told was the reason to deploy. If that was the case, that means there was something else behind this," Kislyak said.

There are 10 missile interceptors planned for Poland. Ten. When we began deploying interceptors to Alaska in 2004 --- a much, much better strategic location to intercept Russian ICBMs, while actually designed to counter you-know-who --- the Russians said nothing. As we dug silos and steadily increased Alaskan interceptor inventory --- nothing. As we announced plans to eventually have 40 GBI birds in the ground (until this past Monday) --- nothing. Even as we told them we were deploying "somewhere" in Europe --- N-O-T-H-I-N-G. But the minute we said "Poland & Czech Republic"?  Apeshit.

Any borscht-addled Russian that makes the case that a handful of Polish interceptors somehow negates the entire Russian strategic deterrant while remaining completely silent about a much larger deployment at a much more effective site is being transparently dishonest. It's as if "there was something else behind this" Russian's mendacity. Like, say, sour grapes over a lost Soviet empire:

And of course the Iranians are thrilled to report the ambassador's claim:

The United States and its staunch ally Israel accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Both Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads.

Tehran has repeatedly declared that its missile systems are only meant for self-defense.

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Video: Missile News Comedy Break

What with our neutered response to the North Korean launch coupled with hair-raising budget slashing, now's a good time for some mindless humor and juvenile tallywhacker jokes courtesy of the Daily Show (kinda NSFW for a certain graphic halfway through):

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BREAKING VIDEO: North Korea Releases ICBM Launch Footage

No embeddable version yet, so go here in the meantime.

McKittrick delivers!

Saaaaaay, wasn't this missile supposed to have a "bulb-shaped" fairing that housed a satellite? All of the "it's just a space launch" apologists were saying that prior to launch. I don't see it:

The missile North Korea is expected to launch as soon as this weekend appears to have a bulb-shaped nose cone consistent with a satellite payload, rather than a warhead, U.S. defense officials said on Tuesday.

A commercial satellite image of the Musudan-ri missile test site showed a Taepodong-2 missile with a bulb-shaped payload cover, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

For comparison, here's the launch of an Atlas V (just 2 days prior to North Korea's, btw) which put a US military satellite in orbit:

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