The likelihood of North Korea’s ballistic missiles reaching their intended destination is very slim. The combined anti-missile defenses of the United States, South Korea, and Japan far exceed North Korea’s offensive capabilities. Analysts believe North Korea’s army has mostly outdated military technology, from the Soviet era.
The possible missiles
The exact types of missiles moved to North Korea’s east coast are unknown, but experts speculate they may be either Musudan or KN-08 missiles. Tested and operational, Musudans are able to traverse 3,000 to 4,000 km, enough distance to endanger South Korea, Japan, and nearby Asian nations if not for the region’s hefty defense network and the fact that Musudans are not particularly accurate.
South Korea and Japan are within range of every missile type.
What’s seemingly more frightening is the KN-08. It is easily concealed, highly mobile, has a range of 6,000 miles, and requires minimal preparation before launch – but it’s also never been tested before. Nor can we ascertain if the one flaunted by North Korea last April is even real. Ballistic missiles don’t simply fire fresh out of the box like consumer gadgets; a large amount of calibration and testing is required for the thing to even reach its intended destination.
A longer-range missile in North Korea’s military arsenal is the Taepodong-2, with its range of 6,000 miles, the United States is a seemingly probable target; however, the missile makes its intentions very clear due to the lengthy set-up time. This would bode worse for North Korea rather than its intended target as the missile is open to pre-emptive strikes, thereby posing the threat of collateral damage in its home turf.
Three layers of defense
With military assets on both land and sea, the United States, South Korea, and Japan have a combined three layers of anti-missile defenses. All three nations have Aegis-equipped warships with radar and interceptors missiles able to hit the ballistic missiles while they’re still in space, before re-entering the atmosphere, thus negating all possible damage.
For destroying those pesky short and medium range-ballistic missiles, the U.S. has deployed its recently developed Thaad system, Terminal High Altitude Defense, to the Island of Guam. The system detects hostile missile launches using radar and fires eight interceptors per asset to nullify the missiles up to a range of 200 km. The Thaad system is particularly effective at stopping missiles during their terminal flight and is designed to protect high-value targets such as cities and air fields.
The third layer of defense, called the Patriot air defense system, stops weapons at close range. Intended for cruise and ballistic missiles as well as aircraft, the Patriot’s radar detects missiles up to 100 km, and fires 4 to 16 interceptor missiles. These counter rockets are ready to fire within 9 seconds and are guided, not to mention that the system is available both to South Korea and Japan.
Story via BBC and Washington Post
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