Today (October 10) is the 77th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea. According to media reports such as KMT 2, Labor News, and other media, North Korea's top leader Kim Jong-un has not only personally directed the great revolutionary contributions made by North Korea to defend its national security to launch various ballistic missiles .
At the same time, the North Korean Central News Agency also disclosed for the first time that in the early morning of on September 25, at a water launch site in the northwestern North Korea reservoir, North Korea's highest leader Kim Jong-un personally directed the underwater launch training of a certain type of submarine-launched ballistic missile . The launch of was also interpreted by the outside world as a strong counterattack measure taken by North Korea to counterattack after the USS Reagan nuclear-powered aircraft carrier sailed into the East China Sea of South Korea. Because according to the South Korean military's statement, before North Korea announced the news this morning, the air defense system deployed by South Korea and the United States did not find out that on September 25, North Korea not only launched the missile from land, but also launched submarine-launched ballistic missiles from reservoirs. This is also considered by South Korea to build a new launch platform in order to conceal the launch signs and preparation process, and to avoid South Korea's "kill chain" system that can deal with enemy missile threats through preemptive methods.
First of all, from the launch scene of the submarine-launched missile released by North Korea, the new submarine-launched ballistic missile launched is completely different from the Polaris-3 submarine-launched ballistic missile that North Korea launched several times before. The head of the Polaris-3 submarine-launched ballistic missile body that was launched previously showed a round shield-shaped structure of the common submarine-launched ballistic missile, but the head of the submarine-launched ballistic missile body was sharper, which proves that North Korea's "Xinpu"-class conventional ballistic nuclear submarine that launched underwater submarine-launched ballistic missiles did not participate in the launch training.
This model of launching submarine-launched ballistic missiles from reservoirs may be a domestic version implemented by North Korea to learn from the Soviet Union's "Baikal" submarine-launched missiles.
In the early 1980s in the late Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, with the maturity of Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile technology, in order to further enhance the survivability of Soviet nuclear counterattacks, the Soviet Union was not only vigorously developing sea-based strategic nuclear submarines, land-based wheel missile launch systems, and railway motor launch platforms, but also secretly built a "floor platform launch system" in Lake Berga that can launch submarine-launched missiles underwater. The launch system was usually controlled by small nuclear submarines that the Soviet Union was good at building at the time. It was mainly caused by the Soviet Union's underground well, wheeled, and railway ballistic missile launch systems on the land were all destroyed when the Soviet Union was hit by a strategic nuclear attack by the United States and Britain. It unexpectedly launched a strategic nuclear counterattack from the water of the Baikal Lake with an average water depth of less than 1,000 meters.
and it is said that after the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Nuclear Weapon Reduction Treaty, the United States sent people to the Soviet Union to check the number of nuclear missiles and . In order to appreciate the beauty of Lake Baikal, they also went to Lake Baikal for field inspections during the inspection. However, from the beginning, Americans who had checked the real number of Soviet nuclear missiles were all standing on the shore of Lake Baikal, but they did not find that there were many ballistic missile launch floats hidden underwater.
. After the collapse of , due to the slow economic development and shortage of defense budgets, Russia's latest North Wind God-class strategic nuclear submarine has not been delivered on schedule. Since 2013, Russia has improved the "Roading" submarine-launched ballistic missile based on the "Light Boat" submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles carried by the North Wind God-class. In order to expand Russia's nuclear power survivability, it has deployed "Roading" submarine-launched ballistic missiles in nearly ten inland lakes, including Lake Baikal.
Now North Korea has also begun to launch submarine-launched ballistic missiles in inland lakes and reservoirs. There is also a reason:
1. In fact, as early as WWII , when Germany developed the V-2 ballistic missile, Germany used a U-2 submarine to drag a launching float loaded with V-2 ballistic missiles to attack the United States, and went to the Atlantic Ocean to launch live ammunition.
To the countries that are studying submarine-launched ballistic missiles later, when the new missile first started live-fire launch, in order to reduce the damage to the submarine of the failed launch, they all went through the launch test mode of the underwater float. For example, when India developed its first submarine-launched missile K-15, it developed a P78 missile launch platform; when France's latest M51 submarine-launched intercontinental missile was tested at the beginning of the millennium, the French Navy also specially built a pool at the port of Toulon, loading the M-51 submarine-launched intercontinental missile in a launch float for launch tests, and finally officially equipped it on the "Triumph" class strategic nuclear submarine .
. For North Korea, at this stage, only the "Xinpu" class conventional submarines with submarine launching capabilities are disclosed. Not only does it have a sparse number, but the Xinpu class has an estimated underwater displacement of no more than 2,000 tons. Even if it is loaded with submarine launching missiles, it can only carry 2 submarine launching missiles, and cannot carry submarine launching intercontinental ballistic missiles with a longer range. Therefore, for North Korea, which seriously lacks the strength of large tonnage and advanced submarine manufacturing, the construction of underwater buoy platforms with low technical difficulty, low cost and arbitrarily increased underwater buoy platforms in inland lakes and reservoirs has become the best choice.
2. Compared with the technically difficult and high-cost strategic nuclear submarine , which is not only low in deployment cost and difficulty, it does not require special motor tools. Whether it is a tug or a submarine, it can be deployed manually, and whether it is a multi-tube or a single-tube layout, you can choose at will. is a strategic nuclear submarine that is intended to improve combat survivability and reduce R&D and manufacturing costs. It will never have the advantages of "arbitrary maneuvering and arbitrary deployment".
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3. North Korea did not choose to deploy it in the outer sea, but deployed it in inland lakes and reservoirs. First of all, for the launching float, there is no high salt spray and high corrosion of seawater. At the same time, the floating submarine-launched missile launch device only has the simplest floating body, and does not have the power module and personnel control and support module that strategic nuclear submarines must have. Therefore, the technical threshold is low and the construction and maintenance costs are also lower.
4. Compared with the underground wells and wheeled motorized launch platforms on land, the floating submarine has the advantage of excellent underwater survival concealment close to the submarine. At the same time, compared with the fact that strategic nuclear submarines go to sea for no more than three months and must come back for maintenance for three consecutive months after going to sea for more than half a year, the floating tube has no power module, so there is no noise. Even if it is deployed in large reservoirs and lakes, it is not easy to easily discover. Moreover, unless it is launched or directly floated underwater, it is difficult to detect even strategic early warning satellites in space.
The biggest advantage of floating tube launch is that it can be on duty 24 hours a year. This is something that strategic nuclear submarines cannot do. It cannot do by strategic bomber , and it can be done by underground wells. However, the deployment of inland lakes and reservoirs can avoid being discovered and destroyed by the first round. These are advantages that underground launch silo and wheeled maneuver do not have.
In summary, this kind of floating submarine-launched ballistic missile launch device arranged in inland lakes and reservoirs is a "strong and powerful means" for North Korea, which has little industrial and economic development, to defend its territory and territorial waters with its own strength and without any infringement.
