N Korea Deploys Ballistic Missile Sub: Reports

[Purveyor]

MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti) - North Korea has deployed a new submarine, capable of carrying ballistic missiles, another step forward in the nuclear weapon development.

Sources in the government of South Korea have said that the North “imported a Soviet-era Golf-class diesel submarine and modified it”, according to a Yonhap News report. Subs of this series are also known as ‘Project 629’. They are powered with a hybrid diesel-electric engine and are able to carry ballistic missiles and/or Scud missiless. Golf-class subs had been in Soviet service in 1958-1990 and were decommissioned thereafter.

Described as “ancient marine technology” in a report by the International Strategy and Assessment Center, these subs may pose serious danger to the South, Japan and the US forces in the region. It is alleged that several of Golf-class subs were purchased from Russia in 1993 by foreign entities.

"The new submarine is 67 meters long with a beam of 6.6 meters, and has a dived displacement in the 3,000-tonne range," Yonhap’s source in Seoul said. The vessel is able to carry single-stage, liquid-propellant missiles with a 1,180-kilogram warhead and a maximum range of 1,420 kilometers. The shortest distance between North Korea’s Sinpo, where the sub was spotted, and Japan is 650 km.

It is alleged that the North has modified the imported vessel. Although Seoul claims Pyongyang does not have submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBMs) technology, certain developments in this area of technology have been reported recently. In September, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that “there is no intelligence yet that North Korea has an SLBM in operation. But the possibility of a North Korean submarine equipped with an SLBM has been detected recently,” as quoted by the International Business Times.

more...

http://en.ria.ru/military_news/20141102/194990965/NKorea-Deploys-Ballistic-Missile-Sub-Reports.html

[GGJohn]

1. These ancient Golf subs aren't much of a threat to the US,

they're noisy and easy for western navies to detect, it would not surprise me if it's already picked up a US Los Angeles class or a Virginia class H/K sub.

[EX500rider]

2. More on this:

18 January 1994

Western defense analysts in Moscow say that Russia is selling 10 ballistic missile-capable Golf II-class submarines to North Korea. The analysts maintain that North Korea could install modified Nodong-1 missiles on the submarines. Although the Russian Navy insists that the submarines will be dismantled under Russian military observation, Western analysts believe that North Korea may cannibalize the submarines for parts and that knowledge of these submarines will help it to improve its own submarine technology.

Yonhap (Seoul), 18 January 1994; in JPRS-TND-94-003, 31 January 1994, pp.45-46.

(Note: The concern that North Korea might use the submarines as a launch platform for its ballistic missiles is not as farfetched as it may at first appear. The first Soviet submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM), the SS-N-4 Sark, was a Scud derivative, and was originally deployed on Golf-class submarines. A Scud-C may be adaptable to an SLBM role, but, at 15.5 meters in length, the Nodong-1 is one meter longer than the SS-N-4 and would not fit in a Golf launch tube without modification. The modification referred to may be a shortening of the missile, which would also shorten the range of the missile. It is not unreasonable to assume that North Korea may have had access to SLBM technology as the precursor to the SS-N-4, the R-11FM, was transferred to China in December 1959. China still uses the Golf-class submarine as an SLBM training and test platform. Additionally, it should be noted that the Russian scientists recruited in late 1992 were from the Makeyev Design Bureau, which is responsible for the design of all modern Russian SLBMs.)

http://cns.miis.edu/archive/country_north_korea/chr9495.htm

[Archae]

3. A submarine is supposed to be able to come back up again...

[Historic NY]

4. chicken dinner !!!!!

Aren't these those rust encrusted hulks.

[scarystuffyo]

5. Found a good pic of it

[Marrah_G]

9. That is both bigger and more advanced then I had thought!

[rppper]

6. 50's era soviet boomer...

Very loud, even with new motors. The missiles are in the rear portion of the sail. The soviets replaced these years ago. It's a derivative of the German type XXI u-boat of late WWII. Even updated it's a nearly a 50 year old design and the Japanese have a very modern, capable navy, including better, quieter diesel subs and asw capability on par with any modern navy.

[greytdemocrat]

7. I heard

They have screen portholes!!!

[lpbk2713]

8. How many NK crewmen will die just for a status symbol?

NK has no experience with submarines and NK has no regard for the lives of their people.

[EX500rider]

10. More from Strategy Page:

November 1, 2014: North Korea admitted that it had restored a retired Russian Golf class ballistic missile submarine to service. Russia built 23 of these 2,800 ton diesel-electric boats. Each had three launch tubes in its elongated sail. The Golfs were in service from 1958-1990, and the last of them carried the 16 ton R-21 (SS-N-5) ballistic missile, which had a max range of 1,600 kilometers and carried a single nuclear warhead. North Korea received ten decommissioned Golf class boats in 1993, to be turned into scrap. North Korea bought a lot of retired Russian military gear in the 1990s, stuff that was being disposed of as scrap. Some of this obsolete gear was returned to some degree of service and restoring this Golf class sub is the most ambitious effort so far. It is unclear if North Korea actually has a ballistic missile that will operate from a Golf class sub as the silos on these boats were designed for a specific missile.

http://strategypage.com/qnd/korea/articles/20141103.aspx

[Orsino]

11. Very expensive anchors. n/t