Pentagon Says North Korea’s Missile Test was Not from a Submarine

Here is the latest on the Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) test the North Koreans recently conducted:

The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday that North Korea’s latest missile launch appeared to have come from a sea-based platform, not a submarine.

The comments come after North Korea said it successfully tested a new submarine-launched ballistic missile off its east coast Wednesday.

“We assess that it was a short- to medium-range ballistic missile,” JCS spokesman Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder told reporters, adding that it flew some 280 miles (450 kilometers) into the East Sea.

“I would say that we have no indication that it was launched from a submarine but rather a sea-based platform,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but out of all of North Korea’s missiles this is the most dangerous and a game changer because it can defeat missile defenses.  That is because submarines can fire without notice from any direction which prevents missile defense units from knowing in which direction to point their radars towards.

With that said this appears to be a test of missile from an underwater barge, but as we have seen with other North Korean systems, the more they test the better they get.