Intercepted North Korean rocket plans

There's your problem!

North Korea -you suck at rocket science!

By EVAN RAMSTAD WSJ

SEOUL—North Korea launched a multistage rocket Friday morning, again defying countries that want it to stop pursuing advanced weapons, but it reportedly blew up less than two minutes into flight and parts crashed in the Yellow Sea off South Korea.

The rocket took off around 7:39 a.m. local time from a new launch facility in the country's northwest corner and flew south towards Japan's Ryuku Islands, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia.

About 90 seconds into flight, roughly the time its first stage should have burned out and second stage kicked in, the rocket flared brightly and apparently exploded, according to ABC News, which cited U.S. defense officials. Parts fell into water near South Korea's Jeju Island, South Korean media reported.

A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman said the rocket "seems to have fallen apart" minutes after launch.

Breaking: North Korea launches rocket- fails!

By NBC News and msnbc.com staff
PYONGYANG, North Korea -- North Korea launched a long-range rocket early Friday, U.S. officials confirmed.

The White House said it would issue a statement, NBC News reported.

The launch, which North Korea's neighbors and the West say is a disguised ballistic missile test, will take a three-stage rocket over a sea separating the Korean peninsula from China before releasing a weather satellite into orbit when the third stage fires over waters near the Philippines.
Regional powers also worry it could be the prelude to another nuclear test, a pattern the hermit state set in 2009.

The South Korean Defense Ministry announced that North Korea fired the long range rocket around Friday morning around 7:38 a.m. and the success of the launch was being tracked by the joint military of South Korea and United States.

UPDATE: BEIJING -- North Korea launched a three-stage rocket from a missile base near the west coast city of Sinuiju today, claiming that it was carrying a weather satellite of purely civilian use.

Its projected trajectory was almost due south on a course 150 miles east of Shanghai. The second stage of the rock was to splash down east of the Philippines, which prompted Manila to cancel northbound flights as a precaution.

Initial network news reports said the rocket failed during flight.

The rocket, named Unha-3 and emblazoned with a North Korean flag, was based on the same technology as the long-range Taepodong missile that the country is developing, which has triggered accusations that North Korea is actually conducting a weapons test.

Since 1998, Pyongyang has conducted three previous long-range launches but has not succeeded in sending a satellite into orbit, although it has claimed otherwise.

Today’s launch will be closely analyzed to determine how far North Korea has advanced its technological prowess.

"If they actually are successful, they can in theory deliver a weapon with a range sufficient to reach the United States," said Scott Snyder, an analyst from the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations.

The launch occurred despite warnings from the United States, as well as China and Russia.

“We don't really care about the opinions from the outside. This is critical in order to develop our national economy,” Paek Chang Ho, head of the satellite control center at the Korean Committee for Space Technology, had told reporters who were invited to North Korea for the occasion.

UK mystery boom a "typhoon" says MoD

A loud bang which sparked a deluge of calls to emergency services across a large part of England was a sonic boom from a Typhoon aircraft, the MoD said.

Mystified residents across the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset and Wiltshire reported hearing a loud boom at about 18:10 BST.

The MoD revealed it was from a Typhoon responding to an emergency call.

A Coventry resident said: "I thought somebody had thrown a brick through the window."

A sonic boom is created as an aircraft breaks the sound barrier, causing a high-energy shockwave.

The Ministry of Defence initially said it was investigating what was behind the loud noise, but a spokesman later confirmed it was from one of two RAF Typhoons that had been launched following an emergency call from a helicopter.

The MoD said the Typhoons, from the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA), based at RAF Conningsby in Lincolnshire, were scrambled and authorised to go supersonic after the small civilian helicopter had emitted an emergency signal.

It said the aircraft were already on their way to the helicopter by the time the helicopter pilot realised he was transmitting on the wrong frequency and switched to the correct one.

"There was no actual threat to the civilian aircraft and they soon rectified their mistake," a spokesman added.

It was doing really tight, slow circles and it suddenly put on full power and the noise was unbelievable”

Before the MoD explained the cause, a number of organisations said they were investigating the origin of the sound.

Among them were Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service, which received a flood of calls, and the British Geological Survey.

There were reports of the noise being heard in Bath, Swindon, Coventry, Rugby and Oxford.

Some of those who heard it said the sound lasted a few seconds.

Tom Sykes, from Highworth, Wiltshire, said: "I was sat at my desk doing some work and it felt like someone had put up a massive base speaker at my feet.

"I'm sure that they didn't move up in the air but they felt like they were with the vibration. I thought the window had come in."

Terry Organ, from Oldfield Park, Bath, said he saw the Typhoon.

"I thought (the sound) was a commercial airliner and then I thought 'no way'," he said.

"We watched for a while and then we saw this aircraft appear and it was a Typhoon but it was flying amazingly slow and we thought it was going to come down.

'Shook the building'
"It was doing really tight, slow circles and it suddenly put on full power and the noise was unbelievable, it was really blasting it out, and then it moved a bit further on and it did another slow turn.

"My impression was that it was struggling to stay up but then he put on full power again and you just couldn't hear anything.

"The noise was terrific, I imagine you could hear it for miles."

Another person who reported hearing the boom, who gave his name as Dave, from Warwick, described the sound as "like sitting on a hard shoulder and a big lorry going past."

"It shook the building and the windows popped," he added.

It is the second time this year that a sonic boom has been created by a Typhoon aircraft.

Night Stalkers Special Ops MH-47 captured in Amarillo this week.

SOURCE: MH-47G

Based around the CH-47F, the 'Golf' is the newest and most advanced MH-47. It features a number of improvements of previous models such as:

Honeywell T55-GA-14A-714 engines
Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS)
A suite of integrated digital mission management systems including LCD screens, communication devices, moving map displays and data processing systems.

The MH-47G has the ability to integrate data from external sensors, allowing it to 'see' over the horizon and make in-flight mission changes as appropriate
Improved missile warning receiver
Improved data/SATCOM modem

MH-47 (MH-47G) Specifications:

Crew Pilot, Co-pilot + 3 crew chiefs/gunners
Engines 2xTextron Lycoming T55-4-714 Turboshaft engines
Dimensions L - 15.87m
W (rotor diameter) - 18.82m
H - 5.59m
Weights 12,210 kg (empty)
24,494 kg (max loadout)
Max Speed 259 kph
Range 1382 km
Armament 4 gun stations (port/starboard front and rear) :
2x m134 7.62mm miniguns (front)
2 xM240D 7.62mm machine gun (rear)
Avionics Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS)
Mission Management Software
Multi-mode radar
Hughes AN/AAQ-16 FLIR in chin turret
Digital moving map display
Aircraft Survivability Equipment Control
BM-AlliedSignal integrated avionics with four-screen NVG compatible EFIS
dual MIL-STD-1553 digital databusses
AN/ASN-145 AHRS; jamming-resistant radios
Rockwell Collins CP1516-ASQ automatic target hand-off system
inertial AN/ASN-137 Doppler,
Rockwell Collins AN/ASN-149(V)2 GPS receiver
Rockwell Collins ADF-149
Perkin-Elmer AN/AVR-2 laser
E-Systems AN/APR-39A laser warning receiver
Honeywell AN/AAR-47 missile warning systems
ITT AN/ALQ-136(V) pulse jammer and
Northrop Grumman AN/ALQ-162 CW jammer
Tracor M-130 chaff/flare dispensers

Photo by Steve Douglass