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Military Projections Show The Devastating Capabilities Of North Korean Artillery Gus Lubin | Nov. 23, 2010, 4:59 North Korea is said to have the world's largest artillery force. South Korea's capital city is only 35 miles from the border. This frightening military scenario is suddenly relevant after North Korea fired shells this morning at a South Korean military facilities on a rival island. At least one person was killed in the attack, and now South Korea has returned

North Korea fired artillery barrages onto a South Korean island near their disputed border Tuesday, setting buildings alight and prompting South Korea to return fire and scramble fighter jets. At least one South Korean marine was killed and 13 wounded, the military said. The skirmish came amid high tension over North Korea's claim that it has a new uranium enrichment facility and just six weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il unveiled his youngest son Kim Jong Un as his heir apparent. One South Korean marine was killed, three were seriously wounded and 10 slightly wounded, a Joint Chiefs...

(Reuters) - North Korea on Tuesday fired dozens of artillery shells at a South Korean island, setting buildings on fire and prompting a return fire by the South, Seoul's military and media reports said.

N. Korea fires artillery towards S. Korean island, official says SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Tuesday fired several rounds of artillery towards South Korean waters and an island near the tense west sea border, the South's military said. The North's artillery shells fell at 2:34 p.m. in the South's waters off the island of Yeonpyeong, some of them landing directly on the island, said Col. Lee Bung-woo, spokesman at the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff. The South's military responded with its artillery firing.

South Koreans return fire- scramble fighter jets Some houses in South Korea's Yeonpyeong Islandin the Yellow Sea are ablaze as scores of rounds of artillery,fired by North Korea at 2:34 p.m. on Nov. 23, hit the island.  As revelations of secret advances made in Pyongyang's ability to enrich uranium come to light, some have suggested arming the South with nuclear weaponry... looks like Dear Leader didn't care for that prospect much... North Korea on Tuesday fired dozens of rounds of artillery toward South Korean waters and an island near the tense west sea border, the South's military said, leaving at least...

Since the GPS-guided Excalibur artillery round first made it to Iraq and Afghanistan, roughly 200 rounds have been fired. In the last week or so, use of that round has pulsed. Army artillerymen have fired 20 rounds or 10 percent of the total in Afghanistan, according to James Riley, Raytheon Missile System’s vice president for land systems. We don’t have similar numbers for the Marines, who have been using the shell as well. Excalibur has been at the center of debate in the Army as the service grapples with the tradeoffs of cost, capability and logistics. Army Vice Chief of...

The International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance 2010 report places China third in the number of artillery systems it fields, after Russia and North Korea. But China doubtless exceeds both in resource commitment and breadth of artillery investments. Credited with an estimated 17,700-plus towed, self-propelled and rocket systems, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has at least 56 artillery systems in use, development or available for export. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps, by contrast, have 8,137-plus artillery pieces of roughly 10 types. China has had a mixed record of using artillery for military and political-military goals. Its successes, as...

PLA Makes Big Investments In Artillery By Richard D. Fisher, Jr. Alexandria, Va. The International Institute for Strategic StudiesÂ’ Military Balance 2010 report places China third in the number of artillery systems it fields, after Russia and North Korea. But China doubtless exceeds both in resource commitment and breadth of artillery investments. Credited with an estimated 17,700-plus towed, self-propelled and rocket systems, the PeopleÂ’s Liberation Army (PLA) has at least 56 artillery systems in use, development or available for export. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps, by contrast, have 8,137-plus artillery pieces of roughly 10 types. China has had a...

Iran unveiled a new artillery shell on Sunday, vastly improving its arsenal's range. Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said the new 130 millimeter advanced artillery shells will be far outstrip the previous capabilities of the Islamic Republic's army, Press TV reported on Sunday. “This ammunition uses solid propellants and act like ballistic missiles,” the Iranian defense minister noted. (Snip) In related news, Iran also on Sunday demanded that the US drop its aggressive attitude towards Teheran if it would like an improvement in relations between the two countries.

U.S. Says N.Korean Artillery Fire 'Killed a Lot of Fish' The United States on Monday expressed concern over North Korea's firing of artillery shells off the west coast. "It is not a helpful sign by North Korea, and this is exactly the kind of behavior we would like to see North Korea avoid," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters. Asked whether Pyongyang will resort to further provocations, Crowley said, "Regrettably, the answer is we're likely to see more provocations. All we can continue to communicate to North Korea is that there will be no reward for these provocations." He...

As RIA Novosti reports, the Russian Defense Ministry will hold talks during an international engineering forum near Moscow with France's Sagem Defense Securite on the possible purchase of a Sigma 30 inertial navigation system. The Engineering Technologies International Forum 2010 will be held from June 30 through July 4 in the town of Zhukovsky, 40 kilometers southeast of Moscow. Earlier this month, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin invited the French-based Sagem company (SAFRAN group), a European leader in defense and consumer electronics, for talks in Moscow. Popovkin said Russia is interested in purchasing the Sigma 30 artillery navigation and...

The US is providing over 900 million dollars worth of used US Army equipment to the Iraqi Army with the Iraqis paying 143 million for their share of refurbishment costs. The majority of the equipment being transferred is 1,026 M113 variants of vehicles with the remaining 255 items being artillery and support.

Israel's state-owned Aerospace Industries has briefed Western and other militaries on its TopGun system, designed to convert 155mm artillery shells into precision-guided weapons. "Using our extensive experience in developing missile systems, we took this technological challenge upon ourselves," Uri Sinai, general manager of IAI's MLM division, said. Executives said TopGun was comprised of a fuze that corrected the trajectory of artillery shells. The kit contained global positioning and inertial navigation systems as well as four fins fitted to the fuze. "The accuracy of projectiles equipped with TopGun, which is mounted on the artillery round, is 20 meter CEP [Circular Error...

Iran has reported the test-firing of long-range rockets said to have been allocated to its proxies in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The Iranian Army launched the Fajr-5 during its exercise near the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan in May 2010. During the Velayat-89 exercise, army units fired the Fajr-5, which were said to have struck their targets. "These missiles are called Fajr-5 and belong to the Fajr-class missiles, and have not been tested in any previous exercise," Iranian Army deputy commander Gen. Kioumars Heidari said. "They were tested for the first time in Velayat-89 exercise zone." Fajr-5 was unveiled...

MAP OF THE DAY: How North Korean Artillery Could Level Seoul In Two Hours Gus Lubin May 25, 2010, 10:58 AM North Korea is known to have the world's largest artillery force. South Korea's capital city is only 35 miles from the border. Although the range of Kim Jong-il's arsenal is fodder for debate, it's certain the rogue dictator could hit Seoul with many shells in a matter of hours. He did take a few potshots last January. This threat is a key reason North Korea can bully its neighbor and stand up to US intervention.1/12 North Korea artillery locations...

Apropos of our earlier post on precision guided indirect fire and the Army’s decision to cut its buy of Excalibur precision 155mm rounds, our own Christian Lowe checks in from his embed out near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border: I spoke with an artillery forward observer with Angel Company, 3–187, at FOB Sharana the other day who told me about the few times he’s employed the Excalibur precision 155 round. He said despite the infrequent use and the Army’s apparent lack of enthusiasm for the weapon, it sure makes a heck of an impression on the Taliban – so much so that...

Israel has been developing a long-range rocket to ease pressure on its Air Force in any regional war. Officials said state-owned Israeli defense companies have been developing a range of long-range rockets meant to rapidly respond to any enemy missile strike on the Jewish state. They said Israel's military has agreed that it required a response to the plethora of missiles and rockets acquired by Iran's proxies, Hamas and Hizbullah. "In the not distant future, we will face a long-range rocket threat that will change Israel's battlefield," Israel Military Industries chairman Avner Raz said. The state-owned IMI and Israel Aerospace...

The basic concept of NETFIRES (a Future Combat Systems program) is to develop a family of artillery-like precision attack missiles based upon a vertical launcher design. Yet the idea goes far beyond that simple description. The NETFIRES CLU box launcher is intended to be be fully autonomous, meaning it can be dropped off anywhere and operate on its own without a support vehicle. The launch unit includes power generation and control systems as well as a total of 15 missiles, each with a warhead similar in size and capability to a 155mm artillery shell. The system is also known as...

Iran on Tuesday launched production of an indigenous short-range air-defense artillery system, codenamed Mesbah, the Defense Ministry said. "The Mesbah (Lantern) 1 air-defense system is designed to counter air attacks, different types of airplanes, cruise missiles, helicopters and other air threats at low altitudes," Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying. He said the new system features "high destruction power" with capacity to fire up to 4,000 rounds per minute, "rapid reaction against threats," and high accuracy and precision. He added that the Mesbah 1 was also capable of tracking and...

North Korea accused South Korea's military of opening fire Sunday towards its side of the tense land border, in what it termed a "grave armed provocation". It said the South's military fired 90 mm recoilless guns towards a civil police post in the North on the eastern sector of the border in the early afternoon. The firing, "seriously threatening the safety of civil policemen of the north side on routine duty", was designed "to deliberately aggravate the situation" in the border buffer zone, the official Korean Central News Agency said. A "touch-and-go situation" prevails along the border due to such...