Tuesday, April 25, 2017

HOT: US To Test Fire ICBM Tonight That Can Reach North Korea



And the silly but very dangerous escalation between the US and North Korea continues.

US military personnel will test fire the deadly (unarmed) Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile between 12:01 and 6:01 a.m. tonight from the north end of the Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc in California, reports the UK Daily Star.

Col John Moss, 30th Space Wing commander, will oversee the launch of the long range missile, saying:

"Team V is once again ready to work with Air Force Global Strike Command to successfully launch another Minuteman III missile.

These Minuteman launches are essential to verify the status of our national nuclear force and to demonstrate our national nuclear capabilities.

We are proud of our long history in partnering with the men and women of the 576th Flight Test Squadron to execute these missions for the nation."

Col Deane Konowicz, the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron commander, said the test will send a message to enemies of the US.

He said: “The Simulated Electronic Launch of a Minuteman III ICBM is a signal to the American people, our allies, and our adversaries that our ICBM capability is safe, secure, lethal and ready.

“It highlights the ground and airborne command and control elements of an electrically-isolated ICBM, demonstrating that our deployed ICBMs will respond to critical launch commands.”

According to the Star, the test of the ICBM will warn North Korea that its nukes are “lethal and ready”.

-RW 

9 comments:

  1. We don't need to signal to anybody "that our ICBM capability is safe, secure, lethal and ready". Our military budget already does that. This test was a waste of money.

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  2. Because heaven forbid, you aren't able to reliably incinerate a country in under 6 hours, after they just cooked yours to extra-crispy (or tried to).

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  3. I don't care for brinkmanship. It's especially disconcerting in the nuclear age.

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  4. This reminds me of a stanza from "Tales of a Wayside Inn" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, (with NK sending off one of its own "ships"):

    "Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, Only a signal shown and a distant
    voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, Only a look and a
    voice, then darkness again and a silence."

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  5. So the US is allowed to test ICBM directly threatening the NK but NK is not...The US can threat any country but when another country warns a response to that threat automatically receives "UNSC sanctions" or more threats...
    21st century logic...

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    1. "Might makes right" as the saying goes. I am no fan of the empire but if North Korea does not wise up they may become toast. They should instigate a coupe on their batty leader.

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  6. Why does the Executive Branch of the United States continually refuse to to converse with North Korea, but instead dictates the terms of of North Korea's surrender? Ask yourself, how much would it cost for Donald Trump and his coterie of whores to go to North Korea, and let Kim show off his country to Donald and the world at large? Going to North Korea would cost very little, but that would be giving into a bogeyman who needs to assassinated for looking after the interests of his regime as he sees fit. God help us all.

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    1. Well Switchblade, as Dr. Paul points out in End The Fed there is no reason to exercise any sort of diplomacy anymore when the money machine can just print out the FRN's to pay for the toys and such.

      End the Fed! It's the real source of many if our problems.

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    2. I agree but, there is a deeper pathology at work in the ever increasing tilt of the executive towards reckless military action over any semblance of diplomacy. I have watched for decades as diplomacy was sold to American males as a form of estrogen infused passivity, and moral weakness.

      Jimmy Carter helped seal that image when he told a story of being terrified of an aggressive rabbit swimming towards his rowboat on a presidential vacation. That imagery forever undid all of the diplomatic efforts he had accomplished in the Middle-East in under one week. His self-neutered affectations made the rise of Ronald Reagan all but inevitable as American males could not relate to a prissy president.

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