A hypersonic missile is among the high-tech weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to introduce to cope with what he called deepening U.S. hostility.

North Korea successfully tested a solid-fuel engine for its new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile, state media reported Wednesday, claiming progress in efforts to develop a more powerful, agile missile designed to strike faraway U.S. targets in the region.

A hypersonic missile is among an array of high-tech weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un publicly vowed to introduce in 2021 to cope with what he called deepening U.S. hostility. Outside experts say Kim wants a modernized weapons arsenal to wrest U.S. concessions like sanctions relief when diplomacy resumes.

On Tuesday, Kim guided the ground jet test of the multi-stage solid-fuel engine for the hypersonic missile at the North’s northwestern rocket launch facility, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

      • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Do you really think they’re ever going to get to the point where they’re an actual threat to the United States of America? Sure… South Korea needs to worry. Japan? Yeah.

        But threatening the USA? Those fucks will find out why we don’t have health care or a functional educational system.

          • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Which…is clearly a joke. Of course they can hit the ocean. If they didn’t hit the ocean when they fired into the ocean that would mean the missiles accidently kept flying forever. Like Arthur Dent throwing himself at the ground and missing.

              • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                lol of course lets not forget when they don’t even fire them. they just raise some missles and are like ‘LOOK AT US LOOK AT US WE HAVE WEAPONS WE COULD FIRE THEM GRRRRRRRRRR’ then they lower them a few weeks later when the world gives them enough attention.

  • Queue@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    8 months ago

    I recall hearing how Russia had dozens of them, and the ROI of a 40 million dollar missile taking out a 400 million ship was great. And then Ukraine got worse and nothing happened, with zero of them ever found or used.

    And North Korea thinks it can even attempt that. I guess we need a “new” geopolitical boogieman to pander for increasing military budgets, since Russia is losing and China does it usual “we will take over Taiwan, unlike last year!” every year.

      • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Not only that, Russia arrested the scientists responsible for the Kinzal program after the missiles were shot down. From what I’ve read, hypersonics move so fast that they’re not easily maneuverable so it’s quite easy to predict where the missile will be to point an air defense missile to intercept it. Either way, it was funny watching their wunderwaffe go down like a wet fart

        • SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          That’s probably because someone found out that putting a ground launched ballistic missile from 2006 on an aircraft, that Patriots were designed to defend against, does not make it a scramjet.

      • Queue@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        8 months ago

        Interesting, thank you. No one in the circles I’m in who were hyping up Russian hypersonic missiles as the next ICBM mentioned this.

    • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Hypersonics are a bit of a meme-ey thing anyway. They’re helpful if you want to penetrate the missile defense of a mobile target like a fleet or something. But if your goal is hitting a stationary land target, then ICBMs, the likes of which we’ve had for half a century now, are still the best way.

      Why go hypersonic through the atmosphere when you can just fly up into space, go around, and then come down at re-entry speeds, which are naturally hypersonic? This way, instead of staying low where you can be intercepted all through your travel, you fly higher than most interceptors can reach for most of your flight path.

      IBCMs can be easily launched in saturation attacks, where say, a missile defense can stop around 50 maybe, so you just launch 80. MAD is still the only thing that truly prevents their usage.

      I can see why China and Russia wanted hypersonics, as a counter to US Carriers. But what, is N Korea going to take one on?

  • Goku@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The amount of “progress” on these missiles over the last decade has to be substantial judging by the number of articles with this same headline.

    This is just fear propaganda.

    • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I’m with you on this, and I felt you needed to know by more than just a click of my mouse, so you get a couple hundred taps of my keyboard as well.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    A hypersonic missile is among an array of high-tech weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un publicly vowed to introduce in 2021 to cope with what he called deepening U.S. hostility.

    On Tuesday, Kim guided the ground jet test of the multi-stage solid-fuel engine for the hypersonic missile at the North’s northwestern rocket launch facility, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

    Intermediate-range missiles possessed or pursued by North Korea are the weapons systems primarily aimed at attacking the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, home to U.S. military bases.

    In recent years, North Korea has been pushing to develop more weapons with built-in solid propellants, which make launches harder to detect than liquid-propellant missiles that must be fueled before liftoffs and cannot last long.

    While the North’s missile test in January was most likely related to the development of its first-stage rocket, this week’s engine test appeared focused on the development of its second-stage rocket in part of the North’s efforts to increase the weapon’s flying speed, said Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at South Korea’s Research Institute for National Strategy.

    The North said Tuesday it performed a live-fire drill of what it called nuclear-capable “super-large” multiple rocket launchers designed to target South Korea’s capital, Seoul.


    The original article contains 615 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Hypersonic, you say? As far as complaints about missiles go, being too noisy seems kinda mild 😛