Russia False Flag Attack? Satellites for identifying ballistic missile launchers cease working

Mary Greeley

Failed NASA launch puts Soviet-era Russian rockets in the spotlight

Fox News

By James Rogers

The explosion of an unmanned U.S. rocket to the International Space Station late Tuesday has shone a spotlight on America’s reliance on overseas space hardware, some of which dates back to Soviet era Russia.

Built by Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences as part of a $1.9 billion contract with NASA, the Antares rocket exploded in a fireball just 6 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island in Virginia.

It’s too early to say what caused the blast, according to Orbital Sciences and NASA. During a press conference late on Tuesday, however, Orbital Sciences executive vice president Frank Culbertson was quizzed about Orbital’s use of refurbished Russian engine hardware.

“We don’t know whether the engine was involved in this or not,” he said. “That’s something that we will try to determine as quickly as possible.”

Orbital uses AJ26 rocket engines from Aerojet Rocketdyne. The engines are a "commercial derivative" of the NK-33 engine that was initially developed to power the Russian N-1 rocket on a lunar mission in the early 1970s, according to Sacramento, Calif.-based Aerojet.

“Basically, this was an engine that was designed to carry cosmonauts to the moon – a number of them were bought by Aerojet several years ago to be refurbished and ‘Americanized’ and provided to American industry,” explained Culbertson. “It’s an extensively tested engine – it’s very robust and rugged.”

The Orbital Sciences executive added that no “anomalies” or other issues indicating a problem were identified during testing.

Culbertson also acknowledged the difficulties getting hold of rocket hardware, particularly in the U.S. “When you look at it, there are not very many other options around the world, in terms of using power plants of this size, and certainly not in this country, unfortunately,” he said.

Chris Carberry, executive director of Explore Mars, a non-profit organization which aims to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars within the next two decades, told FoxNews.com that the U.S. has to be careful not to become over-reliant on foreign technology to support its space program.

“The U.S. has been taking steps to become less reliant on Russian engines as a result of recent tensions with Russia,” he noted, in an email to FoxNews.com.

The U.S. Air Force, for example, is seeking out alternatives to Russian rocket engines for its satellite launches.

Set against this backdrop, Orbital Sciences’ rival SpaceX has been vocal about the fact that it builds its own rocket engines. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk even poked fun at Orbital Sciences’ engine technology during a 2012 interview.

Last month NASA awarded its highly-anticipated space taxi contract to Boeing and SpaceX, which aims to end the agency’s reliance on Russian technology to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station.

Underlining the failure the Antares launch, however, Russia successfully launched its own unmanned supply ship to the International Space Station early on Wednesday.

John Logsdon, professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, told FoxNews.com that both the Obama and the Bush administrations have not provided adequate funding for "a high-quality U.S. space effort."

Orbital Science's use of old Russian engines also reflects the global character of the space business, according to Logsdon. 

"When Orbital Sciences decided to develop what turned out to be the Antares rocket almost ten years ago, it examined the supply of rocket engines from around the world and decided that the former NK-33 engines, which another U.S. company had already purchased from Russia, gave the best mix of cost and performance," he explained, in an email. "One can criticize that choice in retrospect, but it was a commercial decision, not symptomatic of anything except the U.S. not investing for many years in new propulsion capabilities."

Carberry told FoxNews.com the cause of the Antares blast must be determined as quickly as possible.  The incident’s impact on Orbital Sciences “will depend on how quickly a cause of the failure can be determined and fixed - and how quickly the launch pad can be repaired,” he said.

Roger Franzen, technical manager of the Giant Magellan Telescope at the Australian National University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory just outside Canberra, said that the business of launching rockets is fraught with difficulties.

“As the 4th launch of Antares, it could be reasonably considered as still in the proving stage and most new rocket systems will require a convergence to reliability after bugs are ironed out, despite all the design and test rigour,” he said, in an email to FoxNews.com. “Launching rockets remains a risky business and in the end, every payload is riding on top of a controlled explosion.”

Replacing Russian-made rocket engines is not easy

space-travel

Moscow (Voice of Russia) May 05, 2014

The Pentagon is hard-pressed to find a replacement for the Russian-made rocket engines it buys, a senior official has revealed. The import of the engines has for now been banned via a court order lobbied by SpaceX and based on sanctions imposed on Russia during the Ukrainian crisis, Stars and Stripes reports. The private space exploration company SpaceX says it has a cheaper way to launch satellites, and was suing the US Air Force for the chance to prove it.

US billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX on Wednesday won a court order temporarily blocking the Air Force from buying the Russian rocket engines on the grounds of a "potential violation" of US-imposed sanctions. The corporation says that by purchasing the engines, the Air Force is funneling money to Russia's military industrial complex, which could be sponsoring some sanctioned Russian figures.

However, the Pentagon has no "great solution" to reduce its dependence on a Russian-made engine that powers the rocket used to launch U.S. military satellites, the Defense Department's top weapons buyer said.

Earlier ordered by US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the review of US Air Force dependence on the Russian-made RD-180 engines, used in American Atlas V rockets, has not yielded any solutions.

"We don't have a great solution. We haven't made any decisions yet," Frank Kendall, the US undersecretary of defense for acquisition, was quoted by Bloomberg.

United Launch Alliance LLC, a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Boeing Co. (BA), has been purchasing RD-180 rocket engines from joint Russian-American enterprise RD-Amross LLC since 1997. The engines in question have been produced at a plant of NPO Energomash near Moscow, and over 40 of them were delivered during 1997-2007 period.

The US has used RD-180 engines to power its Atlas III and Atlas V rockets, which mostly deliver commercial or military communications satellites, as well as reconnaissance and navigation satellites.

So far, the replacement options outlined by the Air Force for Hagel have reportedly included building RD-180s in the US under an existing license from the Russian maker, or using different Delta-class rockets altogether. The U.S. also could accelerate the certification of new companies to launch satellites that don't use the Russian engine, he said.

Each of the options has its drawbacks, such as the need to harness the time and know-how for setting up engine production in the US, or the limited production capability for another class of rockets, according to Kendall.

There has not, however, been any indication that Russia could stop the production of engines already agreed upon under the latest contract, nor did the US freeze their delivery.

SpaceX won a court temporarily blocking the Air Force from buying the Russian rocket engines and Judge Susan Braden's preliminary injunction doesn't cover existing contracts or payments. Braden said her decision was reached after considering public interest, national defense and security concerns.

Bloomberg learned that five more RD-180 engines are still due to be delivered this year. The further deliveries could come under question at least temporarily, as, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann, the United Launch Alliance has already stockpiled a two-year supply of the engines.

The United Launch Alliance has stockpiled about a two-year supply of the engines based on the current planned satellite launch schedule, Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann said in an e-mail in March.

The joint venture is also taking delivery of five more engines this year, ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said in an e-mailed statement.

So, while the US demands the rest of the world turn its economic back on Russia, it appears they are discovering the world is considerably more inter-dependent than it thought, columnist Tyler Durden writes.

Source: Voice of Russia >>

Russia launches its new ICBM from Plesetsk space centre

spacewar

The Russian Strategic Missile Troops have successfully test fired an RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile with a multiple re-entry vehicle from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, a Russian Defence Ministry press service official for the Strategic Missile Troops, Colonel Igor Yegorov, told a news briefing earlier this Monday.

The experimental warheads arrived in the designated area on the Kura test range in the Kamchatka Peninsula. The set goals of the launch have been fully met, Colonel Yegorov said, RIA news reports.

Russia TV host: Russia could turn USA into radioactive ashes

ITN

ALERT: Did North Korea Shoot Down Malaysian Airline Aircraft?

Mary Greeley

U.S. Says Russia Tested Missile, Despite Treaty

By MICHAEL R. GORDON

WASHINGTON — The United States informed its NATO allies this month that Russia had tested a new ground-launched cruise missile, raising concerns about Moscow’s compliance with a landmark arms control accord.

American officials believe Russia began conducting flight tests of the missile as early as 2008. Such tests are prohibited by the treaty banning medium-range missiles that was signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader at the time, and that has long been viewed as one of the bedrock accords that brought an end to the Cold War.

Beginning in May, Rose Gottemoeller, the State Department’s senior arms control official, has repeatedly raised the missile tests with Russian officials, who have responded that they investigated the matter and consider the case to be closed. But Obama administration officials are not yet ready to formally declare the tests of the missile, which has not been deployed, to be a violation of the 1987 treaty. 

Keep reading on NYT >>

China conducts first test of new ultra-high speed missile vehicle

Fox News

By Bill Gertz

China's military last week conducted the first flight test of a new ultra-high speed missile vehicle aimed at delivering warheads through U.S. missile defenses, Pentagon officials said. 

The test of the new hypersonic glide vehicle was carried out Jan. 9 and the experimental weapon is being dubbed the WU-14 by the Pentagon, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

The hypersonic vehicle represents a major step forward in China's secretive strategic nuclear and conventional military and missile programs. 

The new hypersonic vehicle was detected traveling at extremely high speeds during the flight test over China, said officials who discussed some details of the test. 

The hypersonic craft appears designed to be launched atop one of China's intercontinental ballistic missiles, and then glides and maneuvers at speeds of up to 10 times the speed of sound from near space en route to its target, the officials said. 

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the test but declined to provide details. 

Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon >>

---------------
Mary Greeley

N.Korea resumes missile site construction: US institute

spacewar
by Staff Writers Seoul (AFP) Nov 30, 2013

Tonghae satellite launching ground North Korea

North Korea has resumed construction work on a missile launch site on its northeast coast after a months-long hiatus, part of a renewed push for its nuclear and missile programmes, according to a US think-tank.
Recent satellite imagery shows work has resumed on new facilities at the North's Tonghae launch site, the US-Korea Institute of Johns Hopkins University posted on its 38 North website.
The facilities appear designed to test future generations of larger, more capable rockets, it said.
The restart of work at Tonghgae indicates that North Korea is still committed to maintaining two launch sites along with the Sohae site on the west coast.
But the institute said there were no signs of an imminent long-range rocket test at either site.
The US-Korea Institute said in October that North Korea has undertaken major construction work at Sohae, possibly to cater to larger and more mobile weapons.
The Sohae site was used for the launch in December of the North's Unha-3 carrier, which successfully placed a satellite in orbit.
Construction at Tonhae had appeared to be on hold since early 2013.
But images taken between September 16 and November 18 show work resumed on the new launch control center and the assembly building, the US-Korea Institute said.
There is no sign of further construction yet at the new launch pad or on an access road, it said.
The North's rocket launch in December was condemned by most in the international community as a disguised ballistic missile test that violated UN sanctions on Pyongyang.
North Korea insisted it was a purely scientific mission and vowed to push ahead with similar launches in the future.
North Korea is pushing for a resumption of six-party talks on its nuclear programme, but the United States says it must first demonstrate a commitment to denuclearisation.
Another long-range rocket launch would be taken as a step in the opposite direction and almost certainly result in fresh sanctions.
The US-Korea Institute said in early November that the North was making progress on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a first-generation nuclear warhead to the continental United States.
Missile delivery has often been cited as the main weakness of the North's nuclear weapons programme which, after three tests, is believed to be close to mastering the key technology of warhead miniaturisation.

President Putin ends Russia and NATO ABM cooperation

rickrozoff.wordpress.com

By John Robles for Voice of Russia Moscow (Voice of Russia) Nov 06, 2013 In another powerful and significant move for peace, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has cancelled a presidential order which in 2011, had set up an interdepartmental working group under the authority of the Russian Presidential Administration designed to develop ways to establish cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the sphere of 'missile defense'.

Many experts and NATO watchers familiar with the decree and the attempts by the Russian Federation to develop an equal partnership relationship with NATO on the basis of mutual respect and transparency may now breathe a collective sigh of relief that President Putin has finally run out of patience with the alliance.

The wisdom of the president can not be questioned after what many have been saying for years and dozens of failed attempts to develop a partnership with the alliance. These "failures" have been many fold and compounded by NATO own actions and have included NATO insistence on Like the proverbial Russian bear, President Putin has been slow to be provoked into action but once that action has been decided it is resolute.

Empty rhetoric It was almost obvious from the outset that despite all of its rhetoric to the contrary, rhetoric that has proven time and time again to be as empty as the minds of those espousing it, that NATO had no intention of allowing the Russian Federation into its "fold" as an equal partner.

This total inability by NATO to adjust and modernize its strategic mission taking into account the contemporary realities of Russia as a leading European power interested in peace, rule of law and mutually beneficial cooperation, may be due to its inherent nature of being an organization that was designed, and whose only purpose was, to contain the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and/or that NATO has become a wholly owned global proxy for the attempted advancement of short-sighted, myopic US geopolitical military domination and American hegemony by force.

Keep reading on spacewar >> 

UFO? Astro ghost? Find out what that spooky space cloud really was

ZL OI

НЛО октябрь 10.2013 

NBC News.com

Alan Boyle, Science Editor/

Luca Parmitano / ESA via Twitter

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano captured this picture of a spooky space cloud on Thursday, and tweeted it out as http://pic.twitter.com/PshgE1W7CJ ... Parmitano knew right away what it was. "An immense cloud forms outside the atmosphere after the disintegration" of a missile stage, he wrote.

UFO reports from Russia and spooky pictures from the International Space Station have been traced to the same phenomenon: a Russian missile launch that took place last Thursday.

One of the spookiest things about the UFO sightings is that they were predicted in advance.

"Russia just test-fired a Topol ICBM from the Kapustin Yar range on the lower Volga, to the Shary Shagan impact zone in Kazakhstan," NBC News space analyst James Oberg reported Thursday on the Above Top Secret forum. "In the past, such launches have been seen over a wide area, as far away as Israel and Syria, and reported as UFOs. ... If the weather was clear, we might expect some spectacular videos to show up on YouTube and RUTube."

Sure enough, UFO sightings streamed in from Russia, accompanied by amazing videos of cometlike flare-ups.

A UFO ("NLO") video from Yekaterinburg shows the glow from a missile test launch, flaring up in the sky and then dissipating into a briefly shining cloud.

But Oberg didn't predict that the blast would produce some eerie pictures from the space station as well: NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano both snapped pictures of a hazy space cloud with Earth's rim in the background. Parmitano even got a picture of the trail left behind by the Topol missile's ascent.

Luca Parmitano / ESA via Twitter

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano's picture from the International Space Station shows the trail left behind by a Russian missile launch. "A missile launch seen from space: an unexpected surprise!" Parmitano wrote. The picture was distributed via Twitter as http://pic.twitter.com/mbWI209ELv

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait has a bit of fun with the sighting, imagining it as a deleted scene from "Gravity." And it does make you think: The spooky, jellyfish-shaped cloud of gas from the Topol missile looks mighty close.

"The missile plume is not symmetric or evenly distributed," Oberg acknowledged in an email. "It seems to have some shape, even though it is composed of gas particles moving at perhaps 10,000 feet per second. They are visible because they are glowing hot, but also because they are in sunlight."

The shape reflects how the hot exhaust expanded as it left the rocket, with "four circumferential notches that must be a consequence of plume expansion from four nozzles, or of four steering vanes," Oberg said.

The rocket blast put on a good show for the shooters on the space station, but Oberg said the launch posed no hazard to the astronauts. "This wasn't anywhere near a 'Gravity' Hollywood space debris cascade-triggering possibility," he said. "Topol's altitude, even while thrusting, was far higher than the ISS's, but in terms of accidental collision, [the phrase] 'you can't get there from here' applies. It never went fast enough to catch up."

Some questions remain, however: What were the space station's three Russian cosmonauts doing while the Topol was being launched? Was the launch deliberately timed so they could observe the performance of the missile and its test warhead? Let the conspiracy theories begin ...

Air Force general in charge of nuclear weapons removed for lack of trust: defense officials

removing top military officer, hum? it's required a full explanation!

--------------------- 

usnews

Maj. Gen. Michael Carey/ www.minot.af.mil

By Jim Miklaszewski and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News

A top general in charge of the U.S. Air Force's arsenal of nuclear ballistic missiles has been relieved of his command due to loss of trust, defense officials told NBC News.

Air Force officials said Maj. Gen. Michael Carey was fired for “personal misbehavior” while on temporary duty at an unspecified location outside his usual command. The officials would not describe the behavior, other than to say that it did not involve any sexual improprieties, drug use, gambling, or criminal conduct.

Carey oversaw the 20th Air Force, with a total of 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles at three locations across the U.S.

An Air Force statement said that Carey was relieved from command “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership and judgment.” The statement goes on to say that “the allegations are not related to operational readiness, inspection results, nor do they involve sexual misconduct.”

Gen. James Kowalski, the commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, made the decision to relieve Carey of his command. The firing came after a months-long investigation by the Air Force Inspector General into reports of personal misbehavior by the major general. A separate Air Force investigation into Carey continues, and will determine whether he should be disciplined or forced out of the service.

“20th AF continues to execute its mission of around-the-clock nuclear deterrence in a safe, secure and effective manner,” Kowalski said in an Air Force statement. “It’s unfortunate that I’ve had to relieve an otherwise distinctive career spanning 35 years of commendable service.”

Regarding Carey’s position in charge of nuclear weaponry, a senior Air Force official said: “It’s a job that demands great trust and responsibility, and personal behavior is vital to that.”

Carey enlisted in the Air Force in 1978, according to his official biography, and attended the University of Central Florida, where he graduated in 1982 with a degree in history.

He was promoted to the rank of major general in Nov. 2011, according to his Air Force bio, and served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

It is the second firing of a top-ranking commander with authority over nuclear weapons in the past week. Navy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina was demoted to the from the three-star rank to two and relieved of his post as second in command of U.S. nuclear forces at U.S. Strategic Command amidst a gambling investigation, the Associated Press reported.

The United States has an estimated 2,150 deployed nuclear warheads, according to a recent estimate published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Intercontinental ballistic missiles are capable of carrying multiple warheads.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Godspeed: Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter dies at 88

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read on nbcnews >>

Iran parades 30 2,000 km range missiles

spacewar

A military truck carries a Qadr-2 medium-range missile past a portrait of the late Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during an annual military parade which marks Iran's eight-year war with Iraq, in the capital Tehran. (AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE)

By Staff Writers Tehran (AFP) Sept 22, 2013

Iran paraded 30 missiles with a nominal range of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) Sunday, the first time it had displayed so many with the theoretical capacity to hit Israeli targets.
Iran displayed 12 Sejil and 18 Ghadr missiles at the annual parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
The stated range of both missiles would put not only Israel but also US bases in the Gulf within reach.
But in his speech at the parade, President Hassan Rowhani insisted the weaponry on show was for defensive purposes only.
"In the past 200 years, Iran has never attacked another country," he said.
"Today too, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic and its leadership will never launch any aggressive action in the region.
"But they will always resist aggressors determinedly until victory."
The Sejil was first tested in November 2008 and the Ghadr in September of the following year.
Both are two-stage missiles that use solid fuel that allows them to be moved around and launched rapidly.
The naval chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards was meanwhile quoted as saying that Iran has the capability to strike US warships in the Gulf.
"We have the necessary equipment to destroy American aircraft carries and warplanes in the Gulf," the ISNA news agency quoted Admiral Ali Fadavi as saying.
Bahrain, a strategic archipelago just across the Gulf from Iran, is the home base of the US Fifth Fleet.
The elite Revolutionary Guards is in charge of protecting the strategic Strait of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Gulf, a key gateway for the world's oil supplies.
Over the past year, the United States has gradually strengthened its naval forces in the Gulf region, particularly after Iran at one point threatened to block the strait.

Mystery Satellite Movements: What Is China Doing?

Discovery News

By Ian O'Neill 

www.trtenglish.com

Unexplained satellite movements in orbit, secretive payloads, testing of potential anti-satellite technologies and no official explanation — this sounds like the plot of the next James Bond adventure. But this is no 007 movie, this is the storyline of several Chinese satellites that are raising eyebrows in the West.

As reported by veteran space correspondent Leonard David at SPACE.com, no one really knows what China is up to and this has led to speculation in space analyst circles.

ANALYSIS: When the U.S. Hooked Spy Photos from Space

The speculation is focused on the satellites Shiyan-7, Chuangxin-3 and Shijian-15, all of which were launched on the same Long March 4C (CZ-4C) rocket on July 20 (pictured top).

The official word was that the trio carried science payloads. Nothing too strange with that. But then Shiyan-7 (also known as SY-7, or Experiment 7) recently carried out a series of maneuvers with Chuangxin-3 (CX-3) only for it to make a sudden course change to rendezvous with an older satellite, Shijian 7 (SJ-7, Practice 7), which was launched in 2005.

At launch, one of the newest satellites was thought to be equipped with a robotic arm manipulator (although, at the time, space analysts did not know which one) and at the time the Chinese language press specifically mentioned “space debris observation,” “mechanical arm operations” and the testing of “space maintenance technologies,” according to Gregory Kulacki, a senior analyst and China project manager within the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists’ Global Security Program.

NEWS: No Shoot-Down Despite Incoming Satellite’s Toxic Fuel

At face value, this could indicate that China is working on peaceful space debris mitigation technologies. Perhaps the odd maneuvers of Shiyan-7 reveal the development of techniques of orbital debris retrieval? Worryingly, there’s also a flip side to this coin.

“Since space systems are largely dual use, it should not be surprising that there would be interest in the ability to maneuver satellites in close proximity … but neither should there be blithe assumptions that this is necessarily for solely peaceful ends,” Dean Cheng, a research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., told SPACE.com.

In 2007, China made its military capabilities in space abundantly clear. The nation launched an anti-satellite missile that intercepted one of its own satellites. This orbital target practice not only proved that satellites in low-Earth orbit are not safe from surface attack, the action generated around 3,000 pieces of extra space junk in a heavily used altitude — an act that drew heavy international condemnation. The debris from the intercept persist to this day.

NEWS: Declassified US Spy Satellites Land in Ohio

Space is the ultimate “high ground” in military strategy, so China’s provocative act obviously generated a huge amount of concern and no doubt motivated the U.S. to test its own anti-satellite missile on the defunct spy satellite USA-193 in 2008. As the satellite’s orbit was degrading, that successful satellite intercept did not produce the orbital debris that the Chinese test did. Though the official line was that USA-193 needed to be taken out due to the hazardous fuel on board, the strike was an obvious reply to the Chinese test a year earlier.

So are these most recent strange satellite maneuvers another development in anti-satellite capabilities? If so, the US and China will need to make a decision. Do both powers pursue anti-satellite technologies or do they find a way to cooperate in space like the US and Russia did toward the end of the Cold War?

“Major powers can ramp up a competition to damage satellites, or they can arrive at tacit agreements to dampen this competition,” said Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Stimson Center and director of its South Asia and Space Security programs. “The United States and the Soviet Union chose wisely. China has yet to choose.”

Source: SPACE.com

U.S. Had Evidence of Cuba's Missiles to North Korea

capitolhillcubans

A Letter to the Editor of The Wall Street Journal:

Missile Crisis Wasn't End of Cuba's Missiles

The U.S. government has had evidence of missiles in Cuba—particularly North Korean—for at least two decades.

Mary O'Grady well reminds us of the criminal nature of the Cuban dictatorship, caught smuggling banned missiles and weapons to North Korea through the Panama Canal ("The Castro Brothers Get Caught in the Act," Americas, July 29). Aside from other important threats Cuba poses to our security, the U.S. government has had evidence of missiles in Cuba— particularly North Korean—for at least two decades.

In 1991, it was reported in the media that U.S. spy satellites had discovered at least one, and possibly several, banned SS-20 missiles in Cuba, a finding that was under top-secret White House scrutiny.

In 2003, David Kay, special adviser on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, publicly stated that evidence had been found in Iraq "of North Korean missiles going to Cuba." A few days later, Fox News (Oct. 23, 2003) reported that Hwang Jang Yop, former secretary to North Korea's main decision-making body, the Central Committee, who defected in 1997, had information on "extensive exchanges" of weapons and information between North Korea and Cuba.

Maria Werlau
Executive Director
CubaArchive.org
Summit, N.J.

North Korean ship carrying hidden ’missile equipment’ detained after leaving Cuba

Ricardo Martinelli        ✔ @rmartinelli

Panamá capturo barco de bandera Norcoreana proveniente de cuba con cargamento bélico no declarado pic.twitter.com/MdWGfbXvVJ

 worldnews

By Ian Johnston and F. Brinley Bruton, NBC News

A North Korean ship carrying what is believed to be “sophisticated missile equipment” hidden in sugar containers was stopped while returning home from Cuba, Panama’s president said late Monday.

Speaking to Radio Panama, President Ricardo Martinelli said the captain of the ship tried to kill himself after officials began searching the consignment of sugar.

The vessel, which Martinelli did not name, was heading for the Panama Canal when it was stopped. It was then taken the port of Manzanillo to be searched.

“We suspected that it was carrying drugs and we brought it to port and we started verifying everything that was on the ship,” he said. “We started disembarking the sugar and found some containers that we believe are carrying sophisticated missile equipment."

Martinelli said that the ship was being held while a “more thorough investigation” was carried out.

He added that officials had taken photographs of the arms – one of which he posted on Twitter – “so that the world knows that you can’t transfer non-declared, war-like material through the Panama Canal.” 

“The Panama Canal is a canal of peace not of war,” he told the radio station.

Panamanian authorities have detained some 35 crew members, Reuters reported.

The vessel “aroused suspicion by the violent reaction of the captain and the crew from Friday afternoon,” Panama's Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino told the radio station, according to AFP.

And Javier Caraballo, an anti-drugs enforcement official, said: "Until now we have not found drugs in the boat, we found military equipment."

A spokeswoman for the Panama Canal told Reuters she did not have any more information and referred questions to the attorney general.  The attorney general's office did not immediately return requests for comment.

In April, Admiral Sam Locklear told Congress that the U.S. was capable of intercepting a missile launched by North Korea.

This came after months of heightened tensions due to missile and nuclear bomb tests by the North, during which it threatened to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against U.S. and South Korean targets.

In October, 2012, North Korea claimed that the U.S. mainland was “within the scope” of its missiles.

There are fears Pyongyang is trying to build a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the U.S.

Reuters contributed to this report.

North Korea fires projectile into eastern waters

worldnews

By Hyung-Jin Kim, The Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a projectile into waters off its eastern coast Sunday, a day after launching three short-range missiles in the same area, officials said.

North Korea routinely test-launches short-range missiles. But the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing recent tension, including near-daily threats by North Korea to attack South Korea and the U.S. earlier this year. North Korea protested annual joint military drills by Seoul and Washington and U.N. sanctions imposed over its February nuclear test.

The fourth launch occurred Sunday afternoon, according to officials at Seoul's Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing department rules, refused to say whether it was a missile or artillery round.

On Saturday, North Korea fired two short-range missiles in the morning and another in the afternoon. The U.S. responded by saying threats or provocations would only further deepen North Korea's international isolation, while South Korea called the launches a provocation and urged the North to take responsible actions.

The North has a variety of missiles but Seoul and Washington don't believe the country has mastered the technology needed to manufacture nuclear warheads that are small and light enough to be placed on a missile capable of reaching the U.S.

U.S. officials said the North has recently withdrawn two mid-range "Musudan" missiles believed to be capable of reaching Guam after moving them to its east coast during the recent tensions.

The Korean Peninsula officially remains in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. South Korea's Defense Ministry said Sunday it has deployed dozens of Israeli-made precision guided missiles on front-line islands near the disputed western sea boundary as part of an arms buildup begun after a North Korean artillery strike on one of the islands in 2010 killed four South Koreans.

17 Air Force officers stripped of authority to launch nuclear missiles

Security Clearance

www.usaukonline.com

By Barbara Starr

In an unprecedented action, an Air Force commander has stripped 17 of his officers of their authority to control and launch nuclear missiles.
The 17 are being sent to undergo 60 to 90 days of intensive refresher training on how to do their jobs. The action comes after their unit performed poorly on an inspection and one officer was investigated for potential compromise of nuclear launch codes, according to Lt. Col. John Dorrian, an Air Force spokesman.
The story was first reported by The Associated Press.
The action was taken by the deputy commander of the 91st Operations Group, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, whose officers run launch control centers for the Minuteman III nuclear missiles from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
Folds announced the action in an emotionally charged April e-mail to his unit, saying in part, "Did you know that we, as an operations group, have fallen - and its it time to stand ourselves back up?"
In that e-mail, Folds says, "We're discovering such rot in the crew force," while they are on alert status - standing watch over the nuclear force - that the unit is accepting of violations of weapons safety rules, and code compromises.
In words not often used by military officers, Folds told his troops to "crush any rules violators" and said, "We are, in fact, in a crisis right now."
CNN obtained a copy of the e-mail, which was also first obtained by the AP.
Dorrian confirmed that Folds was referring to a potential deliberate violation of Air Force rules regarding nuclear launch codes and the failure of his troops to report when they see potential violations.
The Air Force action affects only the 17 personnel deemed to need the training; others remain on duty.
The unit underwent a regular comprehensive inspection in March, according to Dorrian. The inspection consisted of an evaluation of 22 tasks. At the time, the unit was announced as having passed with a 'satisfactory" rating, which is third on a scale of five.
But on one of the 22 tasks involving launch operations, it was rated "marginal" which is one step above "unsatisfactory." Dorrian called it the equivalent of a "D" grade.
Then the incident of potential compromise of launch codes occurred. Dorrian said the investigation found no compromise, but did find the codes were "potentially handled improperly," by one officer, who is now facing discipline. All of this then led to Folds' e-mail and action, according to Dorrian.
Dorrian noted that while some in the Air Force might view Folds' e-mail as "emotional," his actions are fully supported at the highest levels of the Air Force. In other portions of his e-mail Folds told his unit:
– "Turn off the TVs."
– "Clean your patches, uniforms and get your hair cut."
– "Bring to my attention immediately any officer who bad mouths a senior officer."
While some nuclear officers are sent for retraining every year, this is the most extensive action taken to date, Dorrian confirmed. It comes after a 2008 Pentagon report was sharply critical of the Air Force for not focusing on the post-Cold War nuclear mission, and for a bomber that, in a flight over multiple states, carried nuclear-tipped missiles without the Air Force realizing it.

Pentagon: North Korea moving closer to developing nuke that can hit U.S.

NBC News

Jon Chol Jin / AP

A man walks by a poster reading "Severe punishment to the U.S. and their followers" in the central district of Pyongyang, North Korea, on Thursday, May 2, 2013.

By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

North Korean advances in nuclear technology are moving the country closer to its goal of being able to strike the United States with an atomic weapon, according to a new Pentagon report submitted to Congress on Thursday.

Though the unclassifed version of the report gave no timetable for when North Korea may have the ability to hit North American soil with a weapon, it did say recent progress is in line with the country's desires to soon be able to carry out such an attack. 

"These advances in ballistic-missile delivery systems, coupled with developments in nuclear technology ... are in line with North Korea's stated objective of being able to strike the U.S. homeland," the report said. 

The report added: "North Korea will move closer to this goal, as well as increase the threat it poses to U.S. forces and allies in the region, if it continues testing and devoting scarce regime resources to these programs."

The Pentagon assessment to lawmakers is required by law and comes after a period of escalating tensions between the two countries. The report calls North Korea one of America's "most critical security challenges" in the region because of its pursuit of nuclear weapons coincides with "provocative and destabilizing behavior."

Washington and Pyongyang began 2013 in a standoff after the North launched of a satellite into space last December, which the report cites as a major contributor to the country's long-range capabilities. That was followed by a nuclear test in February of 2013, which led to sanctions from the United Nations that only brought more threats from the cantankerous country.

Still, the report also noted that North Korea has yet to complete some of the necessary steps required for the country to develop a weapon that can reach the U.S.  It stated that they have not yet tested a re-entry vehicle necessary for a warhead to get back inside the Earth's atmosphere and hit a target.

The report also indicates that newly minted leader Kim Jong Un will follow in his father's footsteps in practicing "coercive diplomacy" and development of military capabilities to deter outside attacks.