Blank on Proliferation in Asia
July 22, 2003 :: Asia Times :: Analysis
Stephen Blank on the growing proliferation of ballistic missiles by China and North Korea, both of which pose a great threat to Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, as well as the latter’s responses with missile defense. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Analysis, China, Proliferation
North Korea Expands Deployment of MRBM Ro-Dongs
July 18, 2003 :: Spacewar.com :: News
Seoul’s defense ministry has issued a report saying that North has “strengthened its long-range striking capability by recently deploying another battery of Rodong missiles.” The Ro-Dong missile has a range of 1300km, sufficient to reach Japan and the US base in Okinawa. The deployment mentioned in the report, which likely consists of nine additional missiles, is said to have taken place in June of 2002. (Article, Link)
» New Rodong-1 Deployment Confirmed
» More stories on: North Korea, Proliferation
» Missile details: NHK-1/2
Iran’s Successful Missile Tests Puts Israel Within Range
July 7, 2003 :: Ha'aretz :: News
Iran again successfully tested its Shahab-3 missile, with a range capable of striking Israel. This particular test, according to Ha’aretz, “was the most successful so far of the seven or eight tests of the missile over the last five years, and has increased worries in Washington - which spotted the test with its tracking mechanisms - and in Israel.” (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Iran, Proliferation, Testing - Foreign
» Missile details: Shahab-6
China Set to Test Missiles
June 20, 2003 :: Inside the Ring (Washington Times) :: News
China is reportedly planning to test three missiles in the coming weeks, the new long-range and mobile DF-31, the medium range DF-21, and the JL-2 SLBM. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: China, Proliferation, Testing - Foreign
» Missile details: CSS-5 Mod 2, CSS-5, CSS-9 (DF-31), CSS-NX-5 (JL-2)
North Korea Has Nuclear Armed Missiles
June 20, 2003 :: Sydney Morning Herald :: News
US officials reportedly told the Japanese government in March that North Korea has more than “one or two” nuclear warheads equipped for ballistic missiles easily capable of striking Japan. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: North Korea, Proliferation
Libya Buying Iranian missiles
June 19, 2003 :: Ha'aretz
Libya is reportedly paying large sums to Iran to purchase versions of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile. Ha’aretz also notes that the Iranian government has sent ground-to-ground missile experts to aid in the development of the Libyan missile program. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Iran, Libya, Proliferation
» Missile details: Shahab-6
Russia: China Test Launches CSS-X-9
January 22, 2003 :: Jane's Information Group :: News
The February 1 edition of Janes Missiles and Rockets reports that Russia detected a launch and test of the new Chinese mobile ICBM on November 23, 2002. The DF-31 tested, also known as the CSS-X-9, was launched from a test site at Uchzhai in the Tekimakan desert and went some 1,700 km before impact.
Janes notes that according to the Department of Defense, the DF-31 will likely be operational “before mid-decade.” (Link)
» More stories on: China, Proliferation, Testing - Foreign
» Missile details: CSS-9 (DF-31)
Wolfowitz: Ship-Launched Missiles Threaten United States
October 24, 2002 :: Department of Defense :: News
Nearly one year to the day after Secretary of Defense Donald Romsfeld warned of a ship based launch of a ballistic missile as already having taken place by an unidentified “rogue state,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz similarly observed the salience of this type of threat:
While much of the discussion of the ballistic missile threat is focused on outlaw states developing long-range ballistic missiles that could reach our shores and those of our friends and allies, let me share with you another possibility. We know that North Korea, Iran and Iraq are developing long-range ballistic missiles. That is the familiar line of threat development. But what is to stop such countries from launching shorter-range ballistic missiles that they already possess today from cargo ships near our shores, perhaps using non-state terrorist surrogates to attack without fingerprints. It’s not a far-fetched threat. The United States test launched a captured German V-2 rocket from the deck of a ship in 1947. And recently we have observed indications of an outlaw state attempting to do the same thing with a short-range ballistic missile from a ship.
(More »»»)
» October 21, 2001: Rumsfeld: a rogue state has tested a ship-launched missile
» More stories on: Iran, Libya, North Korea, Proliferation, Ship-Launched Threat, Testing - Foreign
Rumsfeld on Ship Launched Missile Threat
September 16, 2002 :: Department of Defense :: News
On September 16, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, gave a press briefing, at which Rumsfeld forcefully underlined the capability, already possessed by such countries as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, to deliver ballistic missiles against the United States. An excerpt from the press conference:
Question: “…as far as we know, Saddam Hussein does not have a delivery system of carrying weapons of mass destruction to CONUS—to the shores of the United States—no ICBMs that can reach us, as far as we know. And yet intelligence sources say that North Korea will have missiles capable of hitting Alaska in 2004 and, with a smaller warhead, the West Coast of the United States. Militarily, could not a case be made that North Korea poses a greater threat to the United States than Iraq does? …
Rumsfeld: “…September 11th suggested lots of ways to deliver lethal damage to the United States.
In addition, countries have placed ballistic missiles in ships—cargo ships, commercial ships, dime a dozen—all over the world. Any given time, there’s any number off our coast, coming, going, on transporter-erector-launchers, and they simply erect it, fire off a ballistic missile, put it down, cover it up. Their radar signature’s not any different than other 50 others in close proximity. So your comment that they don’t have the ability to deliver a ballistic missile to this country is flat wrong.
(Article, Link)
» More stories on: Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Proliferation, Ship-Launched Threat
National Intelligence Estimate on the Foreign Ballistic Missile Threat
January 9, 2002 :: CIA :: News
The National Intelligence Council released the latest report on Foreign Missile Developments and the Ballistic Missile Threat Through 2015. The report concludes that the missile threat to the United States has increased since 1999 and that any future analyses of the missile threat must also include the threat posed by rogue nations and terrorist groups. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Analysis, China, India, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Pakistan, Proliferation
