What? The? Fuck?
Seriously?
The tyrannical leader of North Korea has listed Austin, TX as his 4th target for a first strike against the US. He also decided that Washington (no mention if it’s the state or D.C., does he know the difference?), LA, and Hawaii are the other three targets.
What did we ever do to him? Is he pissed because he wasn’t invited to give the keynote at South by Southwest?
All, joking aside, it’s theoretically possible that North Korea could hit the mainland US with a weapon. Though, their recent tests haven’t been all that successful.
First, they don’t have a cruise missile or an ICBM with the range need to reach the mainland US. They have the Taepondong-2, which has about the longest range of a ballistic missile they have… about 4,000 – 6,000 kilometers. Which means, from North Korea, (assuming their best range), that missile could almost hit the tip of the Aleutian Island chain in Alaska. It would barely make it half way to Hawaii.
Oh, that missile… it failed 35 seconds into its flight. Ooopsy.
The successful missile tests have all been much shorter ranged weapons.
Second, unless North Korea plans to launch several thousand missiles, the would really need a nuke to do any damage.
North Korea has tested three (possibly four) nuclear devices. The first was probably a fizzle. That means that the weapon went off, but failed to achieve the planned yield. Often this is the result of not achieving the super-critical mass needed for a complete nuclear explosion.
It’s OK Kim, everyone has performance issues at some point.
The other two were successful. Yield estimates based on seismic activity indicate that both weapons were between 0.3 and 20 kilotons. The WWII weapons were in the 10-20 kiloton range.
Even if he does have the weapons, he can’t get them to us… except…
There is a system called Fractional Orbit Bombardment System (FOBS). It was developed by the USSR during the cold war. The theory is brutally simple.
You place a nuke on a satellite and launch it into low Earth orbit (LEO). Then, you de-orbit the satellite in order to drop the weapon anywhere on the planet. Range is effectively unlimited. The soviets were planning a polar orbit, with weapons coming from the South, where the NORAD radars weren’t looking.
North Korea does have (and successfully tested) orbital launches. The Unha rocket may have launched a satellite into orbit.
While it’s theoretically possible that North Korea could use a FOBS, the devil is in the details. And there are a lot of very, very specific details that have to be worked out. Launching, orbital planning, deorbit, the weapon itself.
At this point in time, I’m highly skeptical that North Korea could achieve a project of this magnitude.
Tell you want Kim, send me your address and I’ll send you a Taco Shack breakfast taco. Just to show there’s no hard feelings.
