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North Korea has announce plans to launch their Taepodong 2 "weather satellite" somewhere between 12 April to 16 April. The current announced trajectory would take the missile South towards the Philippines and Indonesia. Previous launches, however, have all been over Japanese land and airspace including two previous launches of the Taepodong 1 in 1998 and the Unha 2 in 2009. The Taepodong 2 that exploded 40 seconds after launch in 2006 was also going to fly over Japan but instead exploded off the coast of Russia.

The missile is estimated to have a 6000km range (assuming all three stages work) that is capable of reaching the West Coast of The United States. Well, that's what media sources state, but its really just Alaska.

Japan has stated that they will unequivocally destroy the missile if it should fly over their airspace and they are deploying the PAC-3 Patriots And AEGIS SAM's in waiting. Seeing as how the three previous launches were over Japan, the announced flight towards the Philippines could very well be an outright lie.

The Philippines have urged citizens in Northern cities to remain indoors for the entire timeframe and are rerouting flights.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/japan-rea ... ers-final-







So will North Korean's finally prove that their huge missile is "adequate" by Western size standards?

Will it blow up?

Will the Japanese shoot it down?

Will it land on ANCFlyer's truck?

Fumanchewd wrote:
So will North Korean's finally prove that their huge missile is "adequate" by Western size standards?

Will it blow up?

Will the Japanese shoot it down?

Will it land on ANCFlyer's truck?

Potato?

Actually, I vote for some kind of failure along the way. Satellite will not attain orbit, if there ever was one in the first place.

What Jeff said. I wouldn't be surprised if it blew up on the pad.

GQfluffy wrote:What Jeff said. I wouldn't be surprised if it blew up on the pad.

I want their launch to be successful just so somebody can shoot it down.

graphic wrote:

GQfluffy wrote:What Jeff said. I wouldn't be surprised if it blew up on the pad.

I want their launch to be successful just so somebody can shoot it down.

Agreed. Although if it falls over on the launch pad and burns in place, it wouldn't bother me too much either.

The only way the Japanese would be able to shoot it down would be if it was a failed launch in the first place. It should be at or close to orbital velocity and altitude before passing over Japan which makes it a very difficult target. Beyond this, the PAC-3 is a smaller missile than previous model Patriots with reduced range but increased accuracy/lethality. That said, the original was not an ASAT missile and the new version is even less likely to be usable for this.

Perhaps they plan to plink a discarded stage which could well pass close enough to make a good shot possible.

If they do fire to the South as indicated then this would work for a weather satellite but it wouldn't have particularly consistent coverage. If I thought they could build a camera worth a damn, I'd say it was a military reconn satellite. The most likely thing is that it is really a disguised ICBM test of course.

Bang. On the launch pad.

Launched. And failed.

Ah but was it a...failure?

Nope, the failure was sabotage by the evil American empire.

I blame Bush.

So apparently this failed program cost about $900 Million, enough to feed 70% of the impoverished population for one year.

I know that we have some asking the same question in the US but I don't believe that it can even be compared.