North Korea Missile Launch

[CPT Morgan]

Developing Story:
South Korea says North Korea has launched an unidentified missile off the coast.

[CPT Morgan]

North Korea fired on Sunday an unidentified projectile from a region near its west coast, South Korea's military said.

The nature of the projectile is not immediately clear, a South Korean military official said by telephone.

Yonhap news agency reported the projectile launched appeared to be a ballistic missile.

The launch took place at a region named Kusong located northwest of the capital, Pyongyang, where the North previously test-launched its intermediate-range missile it is believed to be developing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-idUSKBN1890UO

[CPT Morgan]

UPDATE 6:30 pm ET: 
South Korean, Japanese, and American officials are confirming that North Korea has launched an unidentified ballistic missile off its West coast.  The missile flew about 700 km (435 miles), the South's military says. The North's last attempt to launch a missile ended in failure when it exploded just seconds into the flight, one month ago.

[LVWood]

There were indications they were getting ready to test, the Air Force had an RC-135S "Cobra Ball" in the area during the launch.
The missile though launched on the West Coast, landed in the Sea of Japan off North Korea's East Coast.

[Polar Bear]

Latest from BBC News:  "We're (The Trump administration) willing to talk with North Korea"  (later in the video) "This is where we have to tell the entire international community.  You are either with North Korea or you're with us."  [0:37 to 0:49 in  the video]
 


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39943619

[Chemsoldier]

The current state with NK is very tense. I would say that this is the most tense I have seen things in my career. It takes one miscalculation or bit of carelessness on either side and we are off to the races.

To all the Soldiers on the penninsula, check your gear an extra time before you hit the rack and stout hearts.

[RitaRose1945]

The current state with NK is very tense. I would say that this is the most tense I have seen things in my career. It takes one miscalculation or bit of carelessness on either side and we are off to the races.

To all the Soldiers on the penninsula, check your gear an extra time before you hit the rack and stout hearts.

Agree.  This has me really nervous for my son.

[Beetle]

Praying for your son Rita.

[Polar Bear]

Prayer's  sent.  It's getting worse.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40871416

[FreeLancer]

The current state with NK is very tense. I would say that this is the most tense I have seen things in my career. It takes one miscalculation or bit of carelessness on either side and we are off to the races.

Scary AF!

[RitaRose1945]

Praying for your son Rita.

Thanks.

When he joined the National Guard, I thought it was nice. He'll be handing out water bottles after a tornado or something.


Nope.

His CO said that 40% of the troops overseas are National Guard, and I've seen some others in our state deployed to places I wouldn't exactly vacation.

[Smurf Hunter]

Thanks.

When he joined the National Guard, I thought it was nice. He'll be handing out water bottles after a tornado or something.


Nope.

His CO said that 40% of the troops overseas are National Guard, and I've seen some others in our state deployed to places I wouldn't exactly vacation.

During my college years, I knew a lot of Naval reserve guys as well as Nat. Guard and Marines too.  During the Clinton era, they often enlisted to get college tuition paid.  No one had much expectation of any conflict. The only deployments then were to places like Guam, Germany, Okinawa and similar places with fixed US bases. A common complaint for the active duty guys were broken promises by recruiters regarding their M.O.S.  "Sure you can be a nuclear technician on the carrier", but more often than not their were doing some muck work like dining hall or changing oil at the motor pool.

Today it's considerably different. Even if your MOS is some support function like DFAC, it'll be a mess hall in A-stan, not Texas.

[RitaRose1945]

During my college years, I knew a lot of Naval reserve guys as well as Nat. Guard and Marines too.  During the Clinton era, they often enlisted to get college tuition paid.  No one had much expectation of any conflict. The only deployments then were to places like Guam, Germany, Okinawa and similar places with fixed US bases. A common complaint for the active duty guys were broken promises by recruiters regarding their M.O.S.  "Sure you can be a nuclear technician on the carrier", but more often than not their were doing some muck work like dining hall or changing oil at the motor pool.

Today it's considerably different. Even if your MOS is some support function like DFAC, it'll be a mess hall in A-stan, not Texas.

That's exactly what my son was doing.  It seemed relatively peaceful when he enlisted, and he would graduate with no debt, so it was a simple choice.  He graduates in a few months, but he still has two years for both of us to stress about it.

[FreeLancer]

Interesting WaPo article with good graphics of NK's missile range:  How three recent launches signaled new leaps in North Korea’s missile capabilities

A partial graphic from the article, for whatever reason the text doesn't link with it.  Those CONUS locations are from a NK map from a 2013 propaganda photo, which corresponds to Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Whiteman, Offutt and Barksdale Air Force bases.  The furthest point east is DC, likely just out of range of the latest missile tested.

[FreeLancer]

I can't resist the urge to go down this road again.

From WaPo tonight:  If Trump wants a nuclear attack against North Korea, his military advisers have few other options

The dueling threats issued by President Trump and the North Korean military have prompted questions about U.S. procedures to launch a preemptive nuclear attack. The answer is stark: If the president wants to strike, his senior military advisers have few options but to carry it out or resign.

A December 2016 assessment by the Congressional Research Service stated that the president “does not need the concurrence of either his military advisors or the U.S. Congress to order the launch of nuclear weapons.” Additionally, the assessment said, “neither the military nor Congress can overrule these orders.”

The reason is simple: The system is set up for the United States to launch an attack within minutes, so that if the United States is under a nuclear attack, it can respond almost instantly, said Bruce Blair, a former nuclear watch officer. Trump would presumably meet with Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. and Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the White House national security adviser, before launching a preemptive attack, but it would “really be uncharted territory” if they sought to stall or slow down an order from the president, Blair said.

[RitaRose1945]

"A December 2016 assessment by the Congressional Research Service stated that the president 'does not need the concurrence of either his military advisors or the U.S. Congress to order the launch of nuclear weapons.' Additionally, the assessment said, 'neither the military nor Congress can overrule these orders.' "

As a master of getting around the rules on technicalities, I have to ask - can they maybe change where they land?  Switch a number or two?

[Smurf Hunter]

From military officers I've talked to, there's more involved.  Even if the POTUS advisors (people at the white house) can't stop the order, if something totally whacked out like attacking Italy was ordered, there are personnel literally in direct control of the weapon systems who have a hypothetical opportunity to intervene.

I feel we have discussed this before.  Perhaps it was LVWood and/or Chemsoldier who commented.  Either way, I don't think Trump could do a few lines of cocaine, get in a fight with his wife and order Melania's native Solvenia to be nuked. 

While the process and protocols may be expedited, I believe there are controls in place for certain contingencies.

[FreeLancer]

From military officers I've talked to, there's more involved.  Even if the POTUS advisors (people at the white house) can't stop the order, if something totally whacked out like attacking Italy was ordered, there are personnel literally in direct control of the weapon systems who have a hypothetical opportunity to intervene.

I feel we have discussed this before.  Perhaps it was LVWood and/or Chemsoldier who commented.  Either way, I don't think Trump could do a few lines of cocaine, get in a fight with his wife and order Melania's native Solvenia to be nuked. 

While the process and protocols may be expedited, I believe there are controls in place for certain contingencies.

Contingency plan, hypothetical opportunity to intervene, a coup d'etat, or whatever else you want to call it; countermanding a President's launch order has no constitutional legal basis, thus the "uncharted territory." 

[Smurf Hunter]

Contingency plan, hypothetical opportunity to intervene, a coup d'etat, or whatever else you want to call it; countermanding a President's launch order has no constitutional legal basis, thus the "uncharted territory."

To be quite blunt, this is all hypothetical BS.  We might as well debate what happens if space aliens visit earth.
I won't take this too seriously if you won't.

[FreeLancer]

Maybe