North Korean Military.

Blackshoe

Blackshoe

Defense Professional
Verified Defense Pro
Feanor said:
They have Kh-35 missiles in their inventory. Is it possible they could adapt those for launch from subs?
Click to expand...
They'd be crossing a bridge the Russians didn't in their design process (though I doubt the Russians ever thought too hard about making the Kh-35 a submarine-launched system, to say nothing of trying to make it work). I'm sure the NorKs will spend an exhorbitant amount of effort trying to make it work, but in a real sense, neither the current North Korean submarines capable of using them (eg the ROMEOs and most likely the new submarines) nor their tactics really benefit from them having AShMs. Though I read somewhere on speculation that they would try to equip some of their submarines with SLBMs, which is probably far more useful to them overall than AShMs. I won't speculate on their ability to successfully deploy those (especially in the C2 realm, which I imagine must be interesting for the DPRK especially), but that seems to be a goal.

Now, setting the Kh-35 up to be used as CDCM? That would work, since they have the coastal surveillance systems to be able to make that work, and it'd be a major upgrade (to put it mildly) over their current STYX-based systems.
 
Feanor

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
gf0012-aust said:
I wouldn't want to be a family member of that engineering team....
Click to expand...
To be fair... would you want to be a family member of anyone in North Korea?

On a serious note, they only fired that SLBM for 30 kms. Not very long range. Are these true SLBMs for strategic deterrence, or could they be akin to anti-ship ballistic missiles, like the ones China has been playing with? Not to say they're identical or sharing tech, but maybe a similar concept?

charly015.blogspot.com/2016/04/corea-del-norte-llevo-cabo-otra-prueba_25.html
 
Blackshoe

Blackshoe

Defense Professional
Verified Defense Pro
Feanor said:
On a serious note, they only fired that SLBM for 30 kms. Not very long range. Are these true SLBMs for strategic deterrence, or could they be akin to anti-ship ballistic missiles, like the ones China has been playing with? Not to say they're identical or sharing tech, but maybe a similar concept?

charly015.blogspot.com/2016/04/corea-del-norte-llevo-cabo-otra-prueba_25.html
Click to expand...
I think it was either deliberately shorted. Failure is a possibility, but no one is saying that, unlike last time.

We know that the previous SLV launches led to the ROKs recovering parts, so maybe they didn't want to risk pieces falling into the wrong hands. I'm guessing once it got to a point they were happy with the launch, they self-destructed it.

I can't see the DPRK worrying about ASBMs. They wouldn't be able to use them anyway, and they won't matter in a war scenario anyway. Strategic weapons do have some value for their deterrence efforts.
 
Todjaeger

Todjaeger

Potstirrer
Feanor said:
To be fair... would you want to be a family member of anyone in North Korea?
Click to expand...
To my understanding, the place is not too bad. If you last name is Kim, that is...

One of the "joys" and dangerous of the cult of personality. One of the reasons why I get a little twitchy whenever someone (living or dead) gets put too high on a pedestal.
 
S

swerve

Super Moderator
The fat boy has had an uncle executed, & according to some reports, his brothers, children, grandchildren & other close relatives - including his wife (fat boy's father's sister) when she dared to complain, so I wouldn't rely on being called Kim to guarantee a good life.
 
Feanor

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
Todjaeger said:
To my understanding, the place is not too bad. If you last name is Kim, that is...

One of the "joys" and dangerous of the cult of personality. One of the reasons why I get a little twitchy whenever someone (living or dead) gets put too high on a pedestal.
Click to expand...
A brilliant Polish poet (Jerzy Lec) once said "When demolishing statues, keep the pedestals. You'll need them."
 
W

Waseb Al-Qisuin

New Member
One thing that the Kims can claim is that they have navigated their country out of the very harsh 1990s without imploding. Reading the analysis over the years it seems that North Korea is economically doing better with economical growth and with a growing part of the Population becoming consumers. Maybe the Party leadership keeps it up and goes the path like the ChiCom. I dont know how the new sanctions do though. And as they have to rely on 'juche' until then not much in Military Terms will Change. There are no means to make their Forces much leaner, keeping the large size and modernizing some parts of their Forces is what they do. Their Army is truly shaped like a big soviet force about to conduct 'deep battle', couldnt be better:)
 
S

swerve

Super Moderator
Waseb Al-Qisuin said:
One thing that the Kims can claim is that they have navigated their country out of the very harsh 1990s without imploding. Reading the analysis over the years it seems that North Korea is economically doing better with economical growth and with a growing part of the Population becoming consumers. Maybe the Party leadership keeps it up and goes the path like the ChiCom. I dont know how the new sanctions do though. And as they have to rely on 'juche' until then not much in Military Terms will Change. There are no means to make their Forces much leaner, keeping the large size and modernizing some parts of their Forces is what they do. Their Army is truly shaped like a big soviet force about to conduct 'deep battle', couldnt be better:)
Click to expand...
They navigated their country out of a self-imposed disaster in the 1990s, an economic crash and famine caused by their own policies, by ruthless repression. They kept the loyal fed (but on short rations for a while) & those who weren't considered useful enough away from the cities, so they could starve out of sight. Hundreds of thousands - maybe millions - did. And died.

The economy has improved since then, but it's probably still producing less than it did before the catastrophe. 50 years ago it was probably richer per head than the south. It was quite a lot richer than the south before the war. Kim Il-Sung took over a country with most of Korea's industry, most electricity generating capacity, etc. The south was the poor, backward part.

It's not exactly a great economic success, & I can't help looking at how well fed the Kims have always been, famines or not.
 
W

Waseb Al-Qisuin

New Member
"They navigated their country out of a self-imposed disaster in the 1990s, an economic crash and famine caused by their own policies, by ruthless repression. They kept the loyal fed (but on short rations for a while) & those who weren't considered useful enough away from the cities, so they could starve out of sight. Hundreds of thousands - maybe millions - did. And died."

I said they navigated their country out -without imploding- (no uprisings, no collapse like most communist countries, no 'regimechange', no war). No doubt that this happened by stalinist means. I didnt deny any catastrophic mismanagement which was symptomatic to most communist countries of the era. But there were more factors that lead to the famine than that. China went through the same 30 years before.

"The economy has improved since then, but it's probably still producing less than it did before the catastrophe. 50 years ago it was probably richer per head than the south."
It was, and declined in the 80s parallel with the SU and was dealt a heavy blow ultimately with the collapse of the SU. I didnt say they do great, but ceartainly they do better today than most people think.

"I can't help looking at how well fed the Kims have always been, famines or not"

I read that often, I think it is irrelevant, they are politicians/rulers and I dont know any rulers who would put up the daily hardship of their own citizens upon themselfes, so no need to set this standard on them in my opinion.
 
Feanor

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
Waseb Al-Qisuin said:
Any info on that Kumsong-3 AShM from the Article? It may be an evolution of the Styx/Silkworm maybe, since Kumsong-1 is of the Styx type.
Click to expand...
North Korea has an X-35 clone. If they have any sense, they'll install that. It's actually a modern AShM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top