Lockheed promotional video: UCLASS concept

Interesting to note that at the end of the video there is a computer animation of a submarine launched UAV.

Author Bill Sweetman first wrote about this concept in "Lockheed Stealth" in 2004. The UAV is thought to be designed specifically for the Virginia Class submarine.

Pentagon now thinks North Korea has nuclear missile capabilities

WASHINGTON — A new assessment of North Korea’s nuclear capability conducted by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm has concluded for the first time, with “moderate confidence,” that the country has learned how to make a nuclear weapon small enough to be delivered by a ballistic missile.

The assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been distributed to senior administration officials and members of Congress, cautions that the weapon’s “reliability will be low,” apparently a reference to the North’s difficulty in developing accurate missiles or, perhaps, to the huge technical challenges of designing a warhead that can survive the rigors of flight and detonate on a specific target.

It is unclear whether other American intelligence agencies agree with the assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has primary responsibility for monitoring the missile capabilities of adversary nations. In the case of Iraq, a decade ago, the agency was among those that argued most vociferously that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons.

Outside experts said that the report’s conclusions helped explain why the administration announced last month that it was bolstering long-range antimissile defenses in Alaska and California, designed to protect the West Coast, and was rushing another antimissile system, originally not intended for deployment until 2015, to Guam.

The existence of the assessment was disclosed Thursday by Representative Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Republican, three hours into a budget hearing of the House Armed Services Committee with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey. General Dempsey declined to comment because of classification issues. The actual wording in the report was obtained by The New York Times.

The congressman’s spokeswoman, Catherine Mortensen, said the material he quoted during the hearing was unclassified. Pentagon officials said later that, while the report remained classified, the one-paragraph finding had been declassified but had not previously been released.

The report issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency last month was titled “Dynamic Threat Assessment 8099: North Korea Nuclear Weapons Program." Its executive summary reads: “D.I.A. assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles; however the reliability will be low.”

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE AT THE NYTIMES

Breaking: North Korean missile in firing position

CNN) -- North Korea has raised at least one missile into its upright firing position, feeding concerns that a launch is imminent, a U.S. official told CNN Thursday.

This comes as the world continued to keep watch for a possible missile launch by the secretive government, and a day before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive in the region.

In the latest daily tough talk from the North, a government agency is quoted by the state-run media as saying that "war can break out any moment."

The South Koreans -- who've heard the cross-border bombast before -- are taking the swagger in stride. Washington regards much of the North's saber rattling as bluster.


The official declined to specify what type of intelligence led the United States to conclude the medium-range missile -- a Musudan -- was in a firing position.

The Musudan is an untested weapon that South Korea says has a range as far as 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles).

It could reach as far as Guam, a Western Pacific territory that is home to U.S. naval and air bases, and where the United States recently said it was placing missile defense systems.

The United States and South Korean militaries have been monitoring the movements of mobile ballistic missiles on the east coast of North Korea.

Japan has deployed defense systems, as it has done before North Korean launches in the past, in case any test-fired missile flies near its territory.

South Korea raises alert level in lieu of pending DPRK missile launch.

BOSTON GLOBE: SEOUL — US and South Korean troops increased alert levels Wednesday as South Korea’s foreign minister warned that North Korea could launch its medium-range Musudan missile ‘‘any time from now.’’

Although North Korea has tested many of its short-range Scud and medium-range Rodong missiles, it has never flight-tested the longer-range Musudan, which is believed to have a range of around 2,175 miles. A successful test of the missile would demonstrate the North’s potential to hit not only South Korea but also all of Japan and targets as far away as the US military bases on the Pacific island of Guam.

‘‘Based on intelligence we and the Americans have collected, it’s highly likely that North Korea will launch a missile,’’ Foreign Minister Yun Byung Se of South Korea told a parliamentary hearing Wednesday, adding that such a test would violate UN resolutions banning the country from testing ballistic missiles. ‘‘Such a possibility could materialize at any time from now.’’

US and South Korean troops raised their ‘‘Watchcon’’ level of vigilance, stepping up monitoring and intelligence-gathering activities, officials at the South Korean Defense Ministry said.

Adding to the concerns, North Korea often stages military provocations around important national anniversaries, and Monday is the birthday of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong Un.

Japan was also on guard for a potential North Korean missile launch, deploying PAC-3 missile interceptors in key locations around Tokyo as a precaution. The US military has moved two Navy missile-defense ships closer to the Korean Peninsula to monitor any North Korean missiles launchings and to intercept the missiles if they threaten the US bases or Washington’s allies in the region.

South Korean military officials said that they had detected the movements of not only the Musudan but also Scud and Rodong missiles to the North’s east coast, indicating that the North might fire those missiles together, as they had done before.

Despite warnings from their leaders of impending nuclear war, residents of Pyongyang gave no sense of panic, with people planting trees and dancing in the plazas ahead of the holiday, the Associated Press, which has a bureau in the North Korean capital, reported Wednesday.

The North Korean warnings also appeared to have little or no effect on the small Pyongyang community of foreign diplomats, who had been admonished by the host government last week that it could not guarantee their safety as of Wednesday and that they should consider evacuating.

A spokeswoman for Catherine Ashton, the top foreign policy official at the European Union, said in Brussels that despite North Korea’s ‘‘aggressive rhetoric, we judge that the situation on the ground does not justify evacuation or relocation.’’

READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT THE BOSTON GLOBE

Air Force report says pilot error caused Dec 17 F-16 crash near Fresno, CA.

NORFOLK, Va.  — A series of pilot errors resulted in a fighter jet crashing in a desolate area of California during a December training mission, according to an Air Force report released Tuesday.

The F-16C Fighting Falcon crashed on government land about 84 nautical miles east of Fresno, Calif. on the afternoon of Dec. 27. The aircraft belonged to the 144th Fighter Wing stationed at Fresno Air National Guard Base.

The pilot safely ejected with minor injuries, but the plane was destroyed on impact. The Air Force values the jet at $21.4 million.

The Air Force has not released the pilot's name, but said the pilot had more than 2,000 flight hours in an F-16 and was part of the 194th Fighter Squadron. The squadron's primary mission is to perform homeland defense throughout the Southwest and be prepared to deploy around the world, if needed.

The report says there were three primary factors that contributed to the crash: complacency throughout the entire flight; pressing the equipment beyond reasonable limits; and procedural error in the last few minutes of flight. An analysis of flight data records indicated there was no evidence of any flight control, electrical, or hydraulic malfunctions that would have contributed to the crash, according to the report.

Among other things, it says the pilot failed to recover the aircraft from a high pitch, low airspeed state in response to a low-speed warning tone. That resulted in an inverted deep stall.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Air-Force-Pilot-errors-led-to-Calif-F-16-crash-4421017.php#ixzz2Q64I7tSn