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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
byCharliemopps ( 1157495 ) writes:
Seriously folks... they HAVE nukes. We know this. They've detonated them underground, we've detected the flash. It's fact. (unless both they and our own government is lieing to us... a distinct possibility)
Do they have missiles that can launch them? Who gives a shit? Any ballistic missile they would have would be trivial for our military to shoot down. They do, however, have very sophisticated submarines. All they need to do is load one of their nukes on a sub and sail it into a major harbor anywhere in the
byDerekLyons ( 302214 ) writes:
They do, however, have very sophisticated submarines.
Sophisticated, maybe, but there's no real evidence of that openly available. Not to mention, what those that aren't obsolete or (at best and being generous) obsolescent and aren't extremely short ranged miniature boats are short range coastal submarines. The numbers may be impressive to the non professional, but their capabilities shouldn't be.
All they need to do is load one of their nukes on a sub and sail it into a major harbor anywhere in the world and viola, world catastrophe.
None of their boats have the range to reach more than a bare handful of the major harbors of the world. Not to mention the risk of the crew deciding they don't want to die on a certain suicide mission today and giving themselves up. (Or a subset of the crew starting a mutiny and thus ending the mission.) There's a reason why the nutjobs of the world concentrate on missiles rather than other delivery systems... missiles can be designed to operated by a trained monkey smart enough to push the Big Red Button. Unlike submarines and aircraft, they don't require intelligent and trained operators in direct operational support. And those trained monkey operators can be overseen by trained monkey security forces and both guarded by trained monkey guards - providing multiple levels of loyal support. Nutjobs absolutely loathe armed forces without a deeply loyal counter to those forces close at hand - too many times in history those armed forces have decided they'd like to take a go at being the head high nutjob.
This is the threat we should be worried about. The whole missile thing is just sabre rattling, irrelevant of their real capabilities. They'd need thousands to overwhelm our defenses.
And you don't think there are any anti-submarine defenses keeping an eye on their larger boats? (The handful that pose a regional threat that is.)
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byRich0 ( 548339 ) writes:
Sophisticated, maybe, but there's no real evidence of that openly available. Not to mention, what those that aren't obsolete or (at best and being generous) obsolescent and aren't extremely short ranged miniature boats are short range coastal submarines. The numbers may be impressive to the non professional, but their capabilities shouldn't be.
Tend to agree. Subs come in two major categories:
Diesel-electric subs can be very quiet on electric power. I'd think that even the US would struggle to locate a very well-designed one (no idea if NK actually has these). However, their range on electric power is purely tactical - they're not going to cross the ocean on batteries. On diesel power they're very detectable - they're loud, and they have to have a snorkel detectable by radar above the surface. If one got close to a city finding it and getting
byCharliemopps ( 1157495 ) writes:
Why would it have to be US waters?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Singapore [wikipedia.org]
Half of the world's annual supply of crude oil flows through this port... Think about it.
byWuphonsReach ( 684551 ) writes:
Newer diesel boats use sterling engines and carry liquid oxygen [wikipedia.org]. Which means they are a lot quieter and can stay under for much longer periods (a few weeks). While they don't have the multi-month endurance of the nuclear boats, being able to go silent for a few weeks is pretty darned good.
byRich0 ( 548339 ) writes:
Thanks - wasn't aware of that development. What is their noise output compared to nuclear subs operating at the same speeds? The article really only says that they're quiet, but all modern subs are quiet. I doubt that modern US anti-sub platforms were designed to only be able to detect WWII subs.
Liquid Oxygen is also not something that can be regenerated at sea, so for cruise across the Pacific I would imagine that they would still snorkel, or their range would be fairly compromised when they got to the
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