politics

Japan starts discussions on ways to counter missiles in other countries

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"May 4, 2019 North Korea launched several short-range projectiles from the vicinity of Wonsan on the country's east coast, one possibly a Russian Iskander missile which can make course corrections during its flight.

(Described as hypersonic, and I doubt that DPRK can make these themselves, Samir Basu."

Btw, the old AIM-54 Phoenix air to air missile was technically "hypersonic" as it could touch Mach 5. Pershing II was a medium range ballistic missile with a maneuvering warhead way back in the 1980s, but the maneuvering and associated guidance system was to allow it to refine its aimpoint against a fixed land based target so they could get away with a smaller nuclear warhead. There was no way it was hitting moving targets. It came smoking back into the atmosphere at over Mach 8. It had to do a pop up maneuver to slow down enough to allow it to maneuver. Maneuvering in the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds is very hard to do. I cannot emphasize that enough. DF-21s are rough copies of the old Pershing btw. After the INF treaty was signed and the missiles destroyed their details became well known so China used what became publicly available to inform the design of the DF-21. Where the rubber meets the road is air breathing hypersonics and neither the Chinese nor the Russians are close. The US and interestingly Australia are the only countries to have successfully testes scramjet engines in atmospheric flight.

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"May 4, 2019 North Korea launched several short-range projectiles from the vicinity of Wonsan on the country's east coast, one possibly a Russian Iskander missile which can make course corrections during its flight."

Iskander is a Russian ballistic rocket. It replaces the old Scud and has a range on the order of 400-500 km. It is no threat to Japan but is a threat to South Korea because the launcher are so mobile, making them tough to target. I have my doubts about claims made about Russian missiles based on the US Navy's experience with MA-30 system bought from the Russians in the 1990s to use as high speed low altitude cruise missile surrogates in fleet exercises. Even today the fanbois make all kinds of wild claims for that missile that are pure fantasy. In real life they were altogether unsatisfactory lacking the speed, range or low altitude capabilities claimed, and had to be replaced with something else. Something else turned out to be converting surplus Talos missiles into targets. They ended up being much faster and able to fly much lower than the Russian kludge. The laws of physics don't change just because something is made in Russia and claims of 20g or greater maneuverability in the atmosphere with no control surfaces are not credible. The other missiles launched were Chinese and Russian subsonic cruise missiles and old tech at that.

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Apologies for the spelling mistake, Samit Basu.

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Desert Tortoise, from Wiki

May 4, 2019 North Korea launched several short-range projectiles from the vicinity of Wonsan on the country's east coast, one possibly a Russian Iskander missile which can make course corrections during its flight.

(Described as hypersonic, and I doubt that DPRK can make these themselves, Samir Basu.)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"with american "peacemakers" and their bases in Japan these islands are target for eventual "enemies".how abt to send GI Joe back home to Iowa to take proper care abt fathers potatoes or rubbish caused by BLM "movement" and let Japan finally govern freely own matters as real sovereign country?

yes fantasy without touch with reality,right?"

Don't be naive. The minute the last US forces left Japan the Chinese would attack with massive force. In case you don't realize it most Chinese hate Japan and want revenge for WWII. My wife is from Shanghai and I have some insight into how the Chinese view Japan. China would not hesitate to devastate Japan if it thought the US would look the other way.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

"Unmentioned is which US corporations these systems will be purchased from.

Raytheon or Lockheed-Martin. Doubt that matters."

I doubt that. Mitsubishi manufactures Japan's current inventory of anti surface cruise missiles including the supersonic ASM-3. Based on official statements Japan's Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency is leading the development of an air breathing hypersonic cruise missile and a rocket launched hypersonic glide vehicle both of which are to be produced in Japan.

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"So when Japan saw that the latest NK hypersonic missiles were flying low and weaving, and not showing up on radar, and would not be stopped by land-based Aegis, and SK has now refused to provide early warning, they realized that they need to consider what steps to take."

I would like to know where you are getting your stories from. North Korea doesn't have a hypersonic cruise missile. Nobody has an air breathing hypersonic anything at this point other than a very small number of test articles like the X-51 Waverider and so far only the US has demonstrated an air breathing hypersonic anything. The Russians and Chinese have supersonic, but not hypersonic, cruise missiles. The Russians fielded some as far back as the 1970s. There are no published reports that I know of claiming the North Koreans are testing hypersonics. Their only existing cruise missiles are subsonic based on Russian or Chinese designs. The Russian hypersonic missiles are rocket powered and fly a ballistic profile after launch. They have very limited maneuverability. The US, Japanese, Russians and Chinese are testing hypersonic glide vehicles but these too are unpowered. They are lifted into space by a rocket and glide to their targets without power.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"Have we learned from the last war ? Peace is the only way for peace."

The lesson from the last war is that if a nation is perceived as weak and unprepared it will lead an adversary to believe it can be defeated easily and lead directly to an attack against it. That is the lesson of Pearl Harbor.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@nandakandamanda

Who is selling these missile systems to NK?

North Korea built them themselves.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Unmentioned is which US corporations these systems will be purchased from.

Raytheon or Lockheed-Martin. Doubt that matters.

Disclosure: I've had ties to both companies, but nothing related to defensive radar systems.

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Trump smiled when NK resumed testing shorter range missiles which would cover Japan but not reach the continental USA.

So when Japan saw that the latest NK hypersonic missiles were flying low and weaving, and not showing up on radar, and would not be stopped by land-based Aegis, and SK has now refused to provide early warning, they realized that they need to consider what steps to take.

Who is selling these missile systems to NK?

Regardless of how DPRK has obtained them, it only makes sense for Japan to figure out how to defend against such threats.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

easier to release a virus

Not only is engineering an effective virus difficult, as we can see with Covid 19, its likely going go around the world and kill your own people before too long...maybe even the person whose stupid idea that was.

or a computer one then sit back and watch.

Computer viruses have not and probably never will win a war or expand territory without missiles or other physical arms.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

There are only a few choices.

a) Wait until the missiles are launched and hope some magical defensive anti-missile system can stop all of the attacking missiles, as many waves as get sent.

b) Preemptively take out offensive missiles which can hit Japan

c) Prey nobody fires any missiles at Japan

d) Work with all countries capable of firing missiles that can hit Japan to ensure it doesn't happen on purpose or by accident. Then hope they weren't lying. Reagan has a "Trust but verify" method which appeared to cause the cold war to end.

I prefer the "Speak softly and carry a big stick" method.

Japan just needs to decide which method to follow.

NK will only attack by accident or to bring the US into a war.

China will never openly attack, but will try to take 1 KM more every year.

Russia probably will never attack, but who knows.

SK will just complain a bunch.

The US will never attack, unless Japan has lost some land as asks for that land to be attacked. It would only be conventional weapons.

Hitting a Mach 3+ missile from a ground-based anti-missile missile isn't easy. We all know that anti-anti-missile attack missiles are already being designed that will jump out of the way as anything else comes within range on the way to their targets.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

You can only have a semblance of peace if you are prepared for war.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Not going to end well.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

It's started already:

"New Aegis destroyer deployed in Japan"

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?edufilter=NULL&v=JkZzpd2C1aU"

2 ( +3 / -1 )

What discussion ? Have we learned from the last war ? Peace is the only way for peace.

Then why has the CCP been ramping up their military budget every year for decades?

8 ( +9 / -1 )

What discussion ? Have we learned from the last war ? Peace is the only way for peace.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

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