The US successfully intercepted an intercontinental ballistic-type missile for the first time during a live-fire exercise.

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Tehran (AFP) - Iran has targeted jihadists in Syria with missiles in retaliation for deadly attacks in Tehran, but the strike was also a message to its regional rivals and Washington, experts say.

Late Sunday, the elite Revolutionary Guards launched six missiles from western Iran into Syria's mostly Islamic State group-held Deir Ezzor province, hitting an IS command base, the Guards said.

The strike was "revenge" for twin attacks in Tehran on June 7 that killed 17 people in the first IS-claimed attacks inside the Shiite-ruled Islamic republic, a Guards spokesman added.

As well as punishing "terrorists", it was intended to show that Iran is capable of projecting military power across the region, officials and experts said.

Tehran has devoted vast military and financial resources to propping up the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a six-year civil war.

It has also sent thousands of Shiite recruits to fight in Syria and battle IS in neighbouring Iraq, according to officials.

But Sunday's strike was the first known missile attack launched from Iran into foreign territory since the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88.

"The missile attacks were only a small part of Iran's punitive power against terrorists and enemies," Guards spokesman General Ramezan Sharif said Monday.

"International and regional supporters of the terrorists must realise the warning message of the missile operation."

Iran has long accused the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia of backing "terrorists" -- a catch-all phrase for rebels and jihadist groups fighting the Assad regime.

US President Donald Trump meanwhile accuses Iran of backing terrorism -- a charge it denies -- and has threatened to tear up a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers. 

'Response' to Senate vote

The US Senate last week passed tough sanctions on Iran for its alleged "continued support of terrorism".

Iran condemned the move and vowed to respond with "reciprocal and adequate measures".

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of a parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and national security, called Sunday's strike "an appropriate response to the US Senate vote".

Analyst Foad Izadi said the strike was intended to convey several messages.

"The first message is that Iran punishes terrorists," he said.

But it was also meant to show that "Iran, in its fight against terrorism, needs missiles -- and sanctions have no influence on its defence policies."

Iran's homemade missiles, which can hit targets up to 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) away, are a major point of tension with Washington and Israel.

Tehran argues that in a region engulfed with conflicts and wars, its missiles are an indispensible part of its defensive power.

Iran's weapons programme is also a major concern for its Sunni arch-rival Saudi Arabia. 

The two regional heavyweights back opposing sides in several conflicts including in Syria and Yemen. 

Sunday's strike came amid rising tensions between Riyadh and Tehran. Izadi said it was partly intended for a Saudi audience.

"Riyadh must know that all of its oil regions are within the range of Iranian missiles," he said.

Message to Netanyahu'

Saudi Arabia struck a giant arms deal with Washington this month during President Donald Trump's visit to the region, which saw him clearly align his administration with Riyadh and lash out against Tehran.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the $110 billion (100 billion euro) deal was aimed at helping the kingdom deal with "malign Iranian influence".

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said Monday that "unlike others, Iran doesn't buy security and stability". 

"Security cannot be traded and those who think they can provide their security by dragging extra-regional countries here are making a stupid strategic mistake," he said.

While Saudi Arabia has spent billions on American weapons, Iran has developed a range of homemade ballistic missiles -- including some that are capable of hitting Israel or American military bases in the region.

Izadi said Sunday's strike on Deir Ezzor, halfway between Iranian and Israeli territory, was also meant as a message to Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, "who regularly threatens Iran."

"The missiles that were fired are medium range -- Iran has long-range missiles with much greater ranges," he said.

Boroujerdi said the strike marked "a new phase in the fight against terrorism."

"So far, we only posted military advisors on the ground in Syria and Iraq," he said. 

"But the attack shows we are capable of hitting terrorists hundreds of kilometres away." 

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People in Japan have been rushing to buy nuclear bomb shelters and air purifiers because of a fear that North Korea may launch a missile attack without notice.

Now the country's suppliers are struggling to keep up with demand, forcing people onto a waiting list.

"It takes time and money to build a shelter," Nobuko Oribe, director of Oribe Seiki Seisakusho, the company that supplies most of Japan's shelters and purifiers, told Reuters.

In a typical year, the company receives six shelter orders. It received eight in April of this year alone. Oribe's company has also been getting non-stop orders for the purifiers in the last few months.

North Korea's test launches have been getting more sophisticated over the last year. In May, the country launched a missile that climbed to 1,240 feet and flew more than 500 miles during its half-hour flight. It was the highest and furthest missile test the country has ever pulled off.

Analysts have expressed concern that a missile launched at a lower trajectory could fly even further.

A critical consideration for Japan is the possibility the ballistic missiles will come equipped with warheads containing sarin nerve gas. In April, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his concerns about chemical warfare.

Many people responded in panic, rushing out to buy provisions that would shield them from an attack. Oribe's shelters, which are some of the country's best-sellers, can be installed beneath a home and reportedly withstand Hiroshima-level bombs detonated 2,100 feet away.

The company prices its purifiers and shelters based on the number of people they can service. Six-person purifiers cost $5,630, while 13-person purifiers run for more than $15,000. 

"A year ago, we were getting maybe five calls a day about air purifiers, but it is thirty a day now", Shota Hayashi, a spokesman for Oribe Seiki Seisakusho, told the Telegraph.

Bomb shelters are even more costly. The largest model, a 13-person unit, goes for more than $223,000.

Japanese citizens that don't have access to a shelter have been told to find cover inside sturdy buildings or underground, if possible. The government has also warned to stay away from windows in the event of a blast.

SEE ALSO: 'This is death to the family': Japan's fertility crisis is creating economic and social woes never seen before

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NOW WATCH: What it’s like living in North Korea — according to a North Korean defector

Turkey reached an agreement with Russia to purchase the latter's most sophisticated missile-defense system, the S-400, a senior Turkish military official told Bloomberg last week.

Under the $2.5 billion agreement Ankara would receive two batteries of the antiaircraft missile from Moscow within the coming year and then produce two more batteries in Turkey.

At the beginning of June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to deliver the missile system, and a Russian military-industry official said an agreement on technical details had been reached in mid-June.

Turkey stepped up efforts to acquire its own missile-defense system after the US, Germany, and the Netherlands — all NATO members — decided at the end of 2015 not to renew their Patriot-missile deployments in southern Turkey. Spanish and Italian missile batteries remain in the country, but those systems are linked to the NATO air-defense system.

The deal has not been finalized and could still fall through, as has happened before — under pressure from the US, Turkey scrapped plans to buy missiles from a Chinese state-run company that had been sanctioned for allegedly selling missiles to Iran. (Ankara has also sought out alternative missile systems from the US and France.)

But the agreement has deepened concern that Turkey is drifting away from its longstanding alliance in NATO, which it joined during the security bloc's first enlargement in 1952.

The S-400 deal "is a clear sign that Turkey is disappointed in the US and Europe," Konstantin Makienko, an analyst at Moscow-based think tank the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, told Bloomberg. "But until the advance is paid and the assembly begins, we can’t be sure of anything."

"The problem is, how do you interoperate in the NATO system with Russians? They'll never interoperate," US Defense Secretary James Mattis told reporters on Friday. "We'll have to see — does it go through? Do they actually employ it? Do they employ it only in one area? All that kind of stuff. But you know, we'll have to take a look at it."

The S-400 system can detect and target manned and unmanned aircraft and missiles and hit targets up to 250 miles away. But it is not compatible with NATO systems, nor would it be subject to the same NATO limits on deployment, meaning that Ankara could set it up in places like the Armenian border or Aegean coast.

A Turkish official also told Bloomberg that the S-400s delivered to the country would not have friend-or-foe identification systems, making them deployable against any target.

While Russia is unlikely to supply Turkey with its most up-to-date missile system, the deal would give Ankara a leg up on its goal to build defense-industry capacity — which may stem in part from Western reticence to exchange advanced technology with Turkey.

The licensing agreement allowing Turkey to produce S-400 batteries domestically would save it some of the billions needed to create a new industry, Makienko told Bloomberg.

"Either way, this is in line with Turkey's massive weapons modernization drive that saw the emergence of new land, air and sea-based systems for domestic use and export," Center for Naval Analyses researcher Sam Bendett told The National Interest.

Turkey has also discussed a missile-system purchase with a Italian-French joint venture, and agreements with Russia may be a means to gain leverage in those negotiations.

The deal may also serve political purposes.

Turkey's relationship with other NATO members has been strained, in part because of the ongoing war in neighboring Syria — sentiment that appears to have intensified after the attempted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016.

Turkish officials were reportedly disappointed in NATO countries' response to the coup, and Erdogan's crackdown in the months since has been criticized by members of the security bloc. Ties with Germany are especially strained, and Berlin is currently redeploying its troops and equipment from a base in southern Turkey to positions elsewhere.

It may also be Turkey's way of spurning the EU, the political and economic bloc that has in the past recognized Ankara as a candidate for membership. Foundering accession talks were scrapped by the EU in late 2016, amid Erdogan's post-coup-attempt crackdown.

On Sunday, Erdogan accused the EU of "messing us about," citing the bloc's broken promises over issues like visa deals and Syrian migrants. "We will sort things out for ourselves," he said. "There's no other option."

Turkish officials have said more than once that dealings with Russia shouldn't be seen as a search for an alternative to either the EU or NATO. But observers in Russia described it as a significant development

The S-400 system would "close Turkish skies," to Western aircraft in particular, Makienko, the Moscow-based analyst, told Russian news site Vzglyad, according to Russian state-owned outlet Sputnik. "If the Turks really purchase Russia's missile defense systems, it will be a tectonic shift, a game-changer in the arms market," he said.

SEE ALSO: Russian and NATO pilots are testing each other's wills in the skies above Eastern Europe

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea does not have the ability to strike the United States with "any degree of accuracy" and while its missiles have the range, they do not have missile guidance capability needed, Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva said on Tuesday.

"I ... am not sanguine that the test on the 4th of July demonstrates that they have the capacity to strike the United States with any degree of accuracy or reasonable confidence or success," Selva said while appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Earlier this month North Korea said it had conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and that it had mastered the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on the missile.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Today's most advanced weapons are already capable of "making decisions" using built-in smart sensors and tools.

However, while these weapons rely on some sort of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, they typically don't have the ability to choose their own targets.

Creating such weapons is now Russia's goal, according to the country's defense officials and weapons developers.

"Work in this area is under way," Tactical Missiles Corporation CEO Boris Obnosov said at the MosAeroShow (MAKS-2017) on July 20, the TAAS Russian News Agency reported. "This is a very serious field where fundamental research is required. As of today, certain successes are available, but we'll still have to work for several years to achieve specific results."

The nation hopes to emulate the capabilities of the US's Raytheon Block IV Tomahawk cruise missile, which it saw used in Syria, within the next few years. As Newsweek previously reported, Russia is also working on developing drones that functions as "swarms" using AI.

We can build it, but should we?

The importance of developing sound policy to guide AI development cannot be overstated. One of the reasons this is necessary is to prevent humans from using such technology for nefarious purposes. Any attempts to weaponize AI should ring alarm bells and be met with serious scrutiny.

Russia certainly isn't the first nation to explore militarized AI. The US plans to incorporate AI into long-range anti-ship missile, and China is supposedly working on its own AI-powered weapons.

It's certainly possible to build these weapons, but should we? Many people, including industry experts, already warn about how AI could become the harbinger of humanity's destruction. Making weapons artificially intelligent certainly doesn't help dispel such fears.

The future of warfare isn't immune to technological advances, of course. It's only natural, albeit rather unfortunate, that technology improves weapons. In the end, however, it's not AI directly that poses a threat to humanity — it's people using AI.

SEE ALSO: House overwhelmingly approves new sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea over White House objections

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During the Cold War, the United States Postal Service and the US Navy experimented with delivering mail via Regulus missile.

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Aberdeen, MD. — The Israelis call it the “Windbreaker” that already is protecting their Merkava 4 tanks against rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles, and now the U.S. Army is close to giving the go-ahead to install it on the M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks.

The Windbreaker, more commonly called the “Trophy Active Protection System,” was designed to detect incoming projectiles and neutralize them with ball-bearing filled canisters fired off like buckshot.

“We’re very close to a decision on the Trophy system,” Army Maj. Gen. David Bassett, the Army’s program executive officer for ground combat systems, said last week.

“We’re looking to make those decisions rapidly so that we can spend money in the next Fiscal Year,” he said. He ultimately envisioned “a brigade’s worth of capability of Trophy on the Abrams.”

The Trophy Active Protection System, developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aircraft Industries’ Elta Group, began being installed on Merkava main battle tanks in 2009. The Israeli Defense Forces claim that the system has worked effectively in Israeli engagements against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The system relies on fire-control radars and four mounted antennas giving 360-degree coverage. When incoming is detected, internal computers instantly calculate firing angles and activate two rotating launchers on the sides of the vehicle that fire off a shotgun-like blast. The estimated cost of Trophy per tank is $350,000-$500,000.

Two other active protection systems are also being considered by the Army — Iron Curtain, developed by the Artis technology firm of Herndon, Va., and Iron First, designed by Israel Military Industries.

The installment of an active protection system on the Abrams would be a first for the Army, which has been looking for a system to protect armor since the Korean War.

According to the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC), “Active Protection Systems have been in the design and development stages since the early 1950s, but none has successfully made the transition from development to integration on a platform.”

Bassett spoke last Tuesday at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, where the new 30mm cannon for the Stryker vehicle infantry squad transporter was going through test firings before being deployed next year with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment based in Vilseck, Germany.

Bassett and Col. Glenn Dean, Project Manager Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said the 30mm cannon and the Raytheon Common Remote Operations Weapon Station II, or CROWS II, which will enable a gunner to aim and fire the FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile while buttoned up inside the vehicle, were prime examples of their approach to upgrading entire families of vehicles in the Army’s Armored Brigade Combat Team inventory.

With the exception of BAE Systems Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV), which will replace the venerable tracked M113 Armored Personnel Carrier, the Army was going with upgraded and remodeled versions of existing platforms rather than more costly new designs, Bassett and Dean said.

“One of the things that makes acquisition go faster is by picking things that don’t require as much design,” Bassett said. “I’m not interested in developing, I’m interested in delivering.”

Bassett said he was working off an annual budget of about $3 billion and that money was “stretched over a vast portfolio. We take that amount of resources and get the most out of it we possibly can.”

“Despite the fact that we have not been given the resources to start new programs for the replacement of some of our main combat systems, we used those resources effectively and that put us in a position to upgrade the entire ABCT (Armored Brigade Combat Team) formation, roughly at the same time,” Bassett said.

With that approach, Bassett said his teams were working on an upgrade of the M1A1 Abrams tank — the 73-ton M1A2 SEP V3; an upgraded Bradley troop carrier, the M2A4; and an upgraded Paladin howitzer, the M109A7.

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North Korea released a propaganda video last weekend of a missile striking a map of Guam, just before the US and South Korea kicked off an annual round of military exercises on Monday.

The four-minute video shows a Hwasong-12 ballistic missile test launch and then switches to a shot of the missile racing down toward a digital map of Guam. 

"Americans should live with their eyes and ears wide open," text in the video read, according to Yonhap News. 

The video featured various US Cabinet members and urged US policymakers to "seriously think twice ahead of an obvious outcome."

Near the end, the video showed President Donald Trump looking onto a field of white crosses with text reading: "The fate of the sinful United States ends here,"according to The Washington Post. 

The video was released two days before the US-South Korea Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises began. The annual military exercises are mostly computer simulations focused on defending the South from the North. 

Adm. Harry Harris Jr. told Stars and Stripes on Tuesday that he was not concerned about the new threats, which also came about two weeks after Trump threatened the North with "fire and fury" if Pyongyang continued threatening the US. 

"I have complete confidence in the capability of the weapons systems that we’ve developed to defend our own homeland and that of Korea," Harris Jr. told Stars and Stripes. "We have had 15 tests of THAAD. We have had 15 successes."

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TOKYO (AP) — North Korea's state media released photos Wednesday that appear to show the designs of one or possibly two new missiles.

Concept diagrams of the missiles were seen hanging on a wall behind leader Kim Jong Un while he visited a plant that makes solid-fuel engines for the country's ballistic-missile program.

One of the photos (on the right hand-side of the photo) clearly showed a diagram for a missile called "Pukguksong-3," which appears to be the latest in its Pukguksong, or Polaris, series. The other (on the left) was harder to discern, though it carried a "Hwasong," or Mars, designation name.

Hanging in between both of the diagrams was an inspirational quote from Kim Jong Un.

The photos were carried in the morning edition of the Rodong Sinmun, the ruling party's newspaper, and released by the Korean Central News Agency just two days after the United States and South Korea began annual military exercises that the North claims are a rehearsal for war.

Tensions on the peninsula generally ratchet up during the maneuvers and a series of larger exercises held each spring.

The KCNA report on the visit said Kim called on workers at the plant to produce more solid-fuel rocket engines and rocket warhead tips.

Michael Duitsman, a research associate at the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies, said the first missile has not been seen before.

"The Pukguksong-3 is definitely new," he said in an email to the AP.

The missile might be designed to fly farther and to be launched from protective canisters, which allow missiles to be transported more easily and makes them more difficult to locate and destroy in advance. Solid-fuel engines add to that difficulty because they allow for quicker launches than liquid-fuel missiles. It could possibly also boost the North's submarine-launched missile capabilities.

North Korea successfully tested the submarine-launched Pukguksong-1 in August last year. It then followed up with a successful test of the land-based Pukguksong-2 in February this year. Both are believed to have intermediate ranges that could target Japan and the U.S. bases there but not the mainland United States.

The submarine and land-based technologies overlap, and developments in either can benefit both.

"It's pretty smart to use the same missile design for both an SLBM and a land-based variant, the key being the canister," said Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who focuses on nuclear proliferation. "On land it's easier to move and store, and fire. And you need a canister-based system for ejection at sea."

Duitsman said the quality of the pictures made it hard to immediately distinguish what the other missile was — though he said it was likely either a Hwasong-13 or Hwasong-11.

Hwasong is what North Korea calls most of its missiles, including its only ICBM — the Hwasong-14, which it tested last month. That missile is believed capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, though it probably needs another year or more of fine-tuning before it could be a serious threat.

"If it is the Hwasong-13, then there has been an enormous change to the design," he said. "The Hwasong-13 was originally paraded in 2012 as a liquid-fueled missile."

He cautioned that more analysis is needed.

"Changing an entire missile from liquid to solid fuel, or vice versa, is generally something you don't do," he said. "The design principles are very different."

SEE ALSO: North Korea is probably bluffing about a missile strike on Guam

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Seoul (AFP) - North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un has promised more missile flights over Japan, insisting his nuclear-armed nation's provocative launch was a mere "curtain-raiser", in the face of UN condemnation and US warnings of severe repercussions.

The Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile that Pyongyang unleashed on Tuesday represented a major escalation in the face of tensions over its weapons programmes.

In recent weeks it has threatened to send a salvo of missiles towards the US territory of Guam, while President Donald Trump has warned of raining "fire and fury" on the North.

After the latest launch Trump said that "all options" were on the table, reviving his implied threat of pre-emptive US military action just days after congratulating himself that Kim appeared to be "starting to respect us".

The UN Security Council -- which has already imposed seven sets of sanctions on Pyongyang -- said in a unanimous statement the North's actions "are not just a threat to the region, but to all UN member states".

Both the North's key ally China and Russia, which also has ties to it, backed the US-drafted declaration, but it will not immediately lead to new or tightened measures against Pyongyang.

The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the North's ruling party, on Wednesday carried more than 20 pictures of the launch near Pyongyang, one showing Kim smiling broadly at a desk with a map of the Northwest Pacific, surrounded by aides.

Another showed him gazing upwards as the missile rose into the air.

South Korea's military said Tuesday that it had travelled around 2,700 kilometres (1,700 miles) and reached a maximum altitude of 550 kilometres.

The official Korean Central News Agency cited Kim as saying that "more ballistic rocket launching drills with the Pacific as a target in the future" were necessary.

Tuesday's launch was a “meaningful prelude to containing Guam, advanced base of invasion", he said, and a "curtain-raiser" for the North's "resolute countermeasures" against ongoing US-South Korean military exercises which the North regards as a rehearsal for invasion. 

Wednesday's statement was the first time the North has acknowledged sending a missile over Japan's main islands. Two of its rockets previously did so, in 1998 and 2009, but on both occasions it claimed they were space launch vehicles.

'Enough is enough'

Tuesday's missile overflight triggered consternation in world capitals and on the ground, with sirens blaring out and text message alerts being sent in Japan warning people to take cover.

"Threatening and destabilising actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world," Trump said in a White House statement. "All options are on the table."

At the UN Security Council emergency meeting Washington's Ambassador Nikki Haley warned that "enough is enough" and that tough action had to be taken.

"It's unacceptable," Haley said. "They have violated every single UN Security Council resolution that we've had, and so I think something serious has to happen."

The North last month carried out its first two successful tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile, apparently bringing much of the US mainland into range, but the Pentagon said Tuesday's launch was judged not to have represented a threat.

Any missile fired by the North at Guam would have to pass over Japan, and analysts told AFP that Pyongyang appeared to have chosen the trajectory as a "half-way house" option to send a message without crossing a red line.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was nevertheless visibly unsettled, dubbing the launch an "unprecedented, serious and grave threat." 

Despite Trump's rhetoric, officials in Washington privately echo the warning by Trump's now former chief strategist Steve Bannon that it is too late for a pre-emptive strike against the North. 

"There's no military solution, forget it," Bannon told the American Prospect in an August 16 interview, his last before losing his job.

"Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me 10 million people in Seoul don't die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don't know what you're talking about, there's no military solution here, they got us." 

SEE ALSO: US, Japan confirm they will increase pressure on North Korea

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Two days after North Korea fired a missile over Japan, the US and South Korea conducted joint bombing drills with its advanced stealth bombers and fighter jets. 

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The Army’s well-known Stinger missile can now destroy small, moving drones using a newer proximity fuze to detonate near a target, service developers said.

Firing from a vehicle-mounted Avenger System, a Stinger missile destroyed a mini-drone more than one kilometer away using a proximity fuse – technology used to find and hit moving targets that are smaller than what the weapon has traditionally been used for.

The live-fire test, which marked the first-ever firing of a Stinger with the proximity fuze, took place this past April at Eglin AFB, Florida

The Stinger missile, made famous by its successful attacks against Soviet helicopters in Afghanistan in the 1980s, uses an infrared seeker with an ultraviolet capability, Army developers said.

Over the years, the small missile - which can be shoulder fired or fired from a vehicle-mounted launcher – has been used to attack helicopters, fixed-wing enemy aircraft and other large targets.

Using the new technology, the weapon can now destroy moving mini-drones weighing as little as 2-to-20 kilograms, Wayne Leonard, Product Lead for Stinger-Based Systems, told Scout Warrior in a special exclusive interview.

The new proximity fuse introduces an emerging technology to expand the target envelope of the Stinger, which can use both a laser rangefinder and forward-looking infrared sensor when fired from the Avenger.

“There’s an antenna that is around this warhead that is sensing to see if it is passing a target. If if passes a target, it detonates. The antenna is detecting movement. Fragments penetrate through the target that is in flight,” Leonard said.

Given that the time of travel and the speed of light are easily determined quantities, a laser rangefinder from systems such as an Avenger system can use a computer algorithm to determine the precise distance of a target, a former Army Chief Scientist explained.

“Based on the changing threat, we are now able to the proximity fuze to destroy smaller UAS. What the Stinger goes after is a heat signature. One of the challenges we are seeing with smaller UAS is that they do not produce the heat signature that is commonly found with a helicopter or fixed wing aircraft,” Col. Chuck Worshim, Project Manager for Cruise Missile defense systems office, told Scout Warrior in an interview.  

It has an ability to attack both soft and hard targets; it can penetrate and then detonate or detonate immediately upon impact, Worshim added. The weapon can fire by itself or be cued from another source using command and control technology.

The Avenger, a Humvee-mounted launcher, can fire a Stinger missile and a .50-cal machine gun for ground and close-in air target. Firing with a range of approximately 8 kilometers, the Stinger is faster than its larger counterpart, the Longbow Hellfire missile. Hellfire missiles, initially conceived of as anti-tank weapons, have a larger warhead. They are also now used for a wider range of enemy targets.

“When firing in the Avenger mode, the Stinger can acquire targets which are not only line-of-sight. A man-portable Stinger can only acquire line-of-sight targets,” Worshim said.

The Stinger has not been used much in recent years in Iraq and Afghanistan, largely because it is less necessary in combat environments where the US already has air supremacy. However, should the Army face a near-peer competitor with air power able to rival the US, the Stinger could likely emerge as a weapon of choice against helicopters and airplanes. Furthermore, given that the weapon can now destroy small drones, it is also conceivable that the Stinger could increasingly be fired in counterinsurgency or hybrid-warfare scenarios as well.

SEE ALSO: Here are the first images of the Army's new futuristic helicopter prototype

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Iran said on Saturday it had successfully tested a new ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles) and would keep developing its arsenal despite U.S. pressure to stop.

The United States has imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, saying its missile tests violate a U.N. resolution, which calls on Tehran not to undertake activities related to missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Iran says it has no such plans.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter the missile test illustrates the weakness of the Iran nuclear deal reached by his predecessor Barack Obama. He also linked the action to recent aggressive moves by North Korea.

"Iran just test-fired a Ballistic Missile capable of reaching Israel. They are also working with North Korea," Trump said on Twitter. "Not much of an agreement we have!"

Iran said in its announcement on Saturday that the Khorramshahr missile could carry several warheads.

State broadcaster IRIB carried footage of the missile test without giving its time or location. It included video from an on-board camera which it said showed the detachment of the cone that carries multiple warheads.

"You are seeing images of the successful test of the Khorramshahr ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 km, the latest missile of our country," state television said, adding this was Iran's third missile with such a range.

The Khorramshahr was first displayed at a military parade on Friday, where President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would strengthen its missile capabilities.

Britain voiced concerns about the latest test.

"Extremely concerned by reports of Iran missile test, which is inconsistent with UN resolution 2231. Call on Iran to halt provocative acts," British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter.

France also said it was extremely concerned and called on U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to carry out a full report on the launch.

"France asks that Iran cease all destabilizing activity in the region," Foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne said in a statement. "(France) will consider with its partners, notably European, the means to obtain from Iran the cessation of its destabilizing ballistic activities."

Trump told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday that Iran was building its missile capability and accused it of exporting violence to Yemen, Syria and other parts of the Middle East.

He also criticized a 2015 pact that the United States and other world powers struck with Iran under which Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.

Iran's defense minister said on Saturday foreign pressures would not affect Iran's missile program.

"On the path to improve our country's defensive capacity we will certainly not be the least affected by any threats and we won't ask anyone's permission," Brigadier General Amir Hatami said in remarks carried by state television.

Iran denies its missile development breaches the U.N. resolution and says its missiles are not designed to carry nuclear weapons.

"The weight of the Khorramshahr missile's warhead has been announced to be 1,800 kg (4,000 lbs), ... making it Iran's most powerful missile for defense and retaliation against any aggressive enemy," state television said.

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The Air Force is seeking more upgraded Maverick air-to-ground missiles, an air-launched weapon in service since the Vietnam era now receiving an upgraded laser-seeker along with new software configurations to better enable it to hit targets on the run, such as ISIS fighters.

The upgraded weapon is currently configured to fire from an Air Force F-16 and A-10 and Navy Harrier Jets and F/A-18s.

"The upgrades are not completed. Raytheon Missile Systems will deliver several hundred upgraded Guidance Control Sections from January-June 2018.

In addition, the U.S. Air Force is currently in negotiations with Raytheon for additional upgraded GCS for delivery after 2018," Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Emily Grabowski told Warrior.

US military weapons developers have explained that the Laser Maverick (LMAV) E2 seeker upgrade is capable of precisely targeting and destroying a wide variety of fixed, stationary and high speed moving land or sea targets.

The LMAV E2 upgrade program has been implemented as a seeker and sustainment upgrade, she added. The Air Force has been attacking ISIS with the upgraded Maverick through a prior deal to receive 256 missiles from its maker, Raytheon.

Also, there is an existing laser-guided version of the Maverick already in use; the new variant involves a substantial improvement in the weapon’s guidance and targeting systems.

The AGM-65E2, as it’s called, will continue to be used to attack ISIS as part of the ongoing Operation Inherent Resolve, US military officials said. Such a technology is of particular relevance against ISIS because the ongoing U.S. Coalition air bombing has made it virtually impossible for ISIS to gather in large formations, use convoys of armored vehicles or mass large numbers of fighters.

As a result, their combat tactics are now largely restricted to movement in small groups such as pick-up trucks or groups of fighters deliberately blended in with civilians. This kind of tactical circumstance, without question, underscores the need for precision weaponry from the air – weapons which can destroy maneuvering and fast-moving targets.

As opposed to being a free-fall weapon, the Maverick has a rocket on it; it travels faster and has maneuverability to follow a laser spot on a fast-moving pick-up truck, Raytheon developers told Warrior.

The Maverick uses Semi-Active Laser, or SAL, guidance to follow a laser “spot” or designation from an aircraft itself, a nearby aircraft or ground asset to paint the target.

For the upgrades, existing AGM-65A/B Guidance and Control Sections are modified with a state-of-the-art Semi-Active Laser E2 seeker target. The missiles with upgraded seekers add the capability to self-lase from the delivery platform, address numerous changes in response to parts obsolescence, and add Pulse repetition frequency (PRF) last code hold to ease pilot workload, US military weapons developers told Warrior last year.

The weapon can also use infrared and electro-optical or EO guidance to attack target. It can use a point detonation fuse designed to explode upon impact or a delayed fuse allowing the missile to penetrate a structure before detonating as a way to maximize its lethal impact. It uses a 300-pound “blast-frag” warhead engineered to explode shrapnel and metal fragments in all directions near or on a designated target.

Raytheon weapons developers told Warrior the Maverick uses a blast but not quite as large as a 500-pound bomb for lower collateral damage.

Also, In the event of a loss of LASER lock, the upgraded missiles are able to de-arm & fly towards last seen laser spot; and will re-arm & guide to target with laser reacquisition.

Fighter pilots describe the Maverick as a weapon of choice for fast-moving and rapidly maneuvering targets, according to developers.

In addition to its role against ground targets such as ISIS, the Maverick weapon able to hit maneuvering targets at sea such as small attack boats.

“It has a rocket on it versus being a free-fall weapon. It travels faster and has maneuverability to follow a laser spot on a fast-moving pick-up truck,” McKenzie explained.

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SEOUL, (Reuters) - In 2009, a pop video from North Korea celebrated a new national hero - one that outside experts would later realize was at the heart of the secretive state's banned nuclear and missile programs.

That hero, widely available in factories across the world, was the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine.

Big, grey and boxy, CNC machines use pre-programmed guides to produce intricate parts for everything from automobiles and mobile phones to furniture and clothes. They offer accuracy that human machine tool operators are unable to achieve.

In North Korea, thanks to a combination of homemade technology and reverse engineering, the machines now play a critical role in the weapons programs. They allow Kim Jong Un to build nuclear bombs and missiles without relying as heavily on outside technical aid or imports.

Nuclear weapons experts say this has helped him accelerate missile and nuclear testing despite international sanctions on the transfer of sensitive equipment.

"North Korea's centrifuges and new missiles all depend on components made with CNC machine tools," said Jeffrey Lewis, head of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of Strategic Studies at Monterey, California.

"(They) are the essential underlying technology for producing missiles and nuclear weapons," said Lewis.

Since 1996, CNC machines have been included in the Wassenaar Arrangement – an international arms control regime aimed at stopping the proliferation of equipment with both civilian and military uses. North Korea is not a signatory.

The country's celebrations of its CNC technology have been fulsome. Hundreds of dancers in luminous orange and green performed the CNC pop song, titled "Break through the cutting edge," at a Korean Workers' Party celebration in 2010. In 2012, the year the South Korean hit "Gangnam Style" was released, the North's CNC title was on karaoke machines nationwide, according to Choson Exchange, a Singapore-based company that trains North Koreans in business skills.

The official video for the song opens with a long-range North Korean rocket soaring into a blue sky.

Cutting edge

North Korea likely started to develop its own CNC machines in the early 1990s as part of a drive to build sophisticated missiles and nuclear weapons, nuclear experts say.

It probably learned how to make them by taking apart machines it had imported from the Soviet Union.

Its first homemade CNC machine was introduced in 1995. Former leader Kim Jong Il gave the machine the "Ryonha" brand, according to a 2009 article in the country's official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun. That was the first time state media mentioned the technology.

By 2009, the machines had become a mainstay of North Korean propaganda, as Pyongyang launched a nationwide campaign to boost domestic industry. Sanctions were mounting after its second nuclear test and a long-range missile launch that year.

At the time, arms control experts raised concerns about a visit by former leader Kim Jong Il to a North Korean factory where homemade CNC machines appeared to be producing aluminum tubes. These could be used for nuclear centrifuges.

"By around 2010, it seemed they were capable of manufacturing various types of CNC machines," said Kim Heung-gwang, a North Korean defector who taught at Pyongyang's Hamhung Computer Technology University before defecting to South Korea.

But it wasn't until 2013 that the Korea Ryonha Machinery Joint Venture Corporation, which produced the machines, was blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council for supporting the weapons programs.

And it was only in August this year that U.S. intelligence officials told Reuters North Korea likely has the ability to produce its own missile engines themselves.

Now, Kim Heung-gwang estimates, North Korea has about 15,000 CNC machines. He bases this on North Korean state media reports and photos as well as interviews with more than a dozen defectors who were scientists, professors or factory workers.

Mass production

Pyongyang hailed the homemade machines as a triumph for its governing ideology of "Juche", which champions self-sufficiency. But that wasn't strictly true.

In August 2016, state media released photos of Kim Jong Un visiting a factory using CNC machines with the logo of Swiss engineering firm ABB ABB.UL, one of the leading players in the global CNC machine market. It's not clear when or how the machine reached North Korea.

ABB said the firm respects all applicable trade sanctions against North Korea, and undertakes not to deliver ABB equipment to the country. "That said, we cannot rule out that some of our equipment may have been resold to DPR of Korea without our knowledge or permission," the company said in response to a Reuters inquiry, using North Korea's official title.

A United Nations panel monitoring sanctions on North Korea said in a report this year that Tengzhou Keyongda CNC Machine Tools Co of China had been a supplier of Pyongyang's new CNC machines. A sales representative for Tengzhou Keyongda told Reuters the company stopped selling CNC machines to North Korea four years ago, and no longer maintains trade relations with the country.

Despite sanctions, CNC machines are commonplace across North Korean manufacturing and can be brought in through China and Russia, said Lee Choon-geun, a senior fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Institute in South Korea

The biggest loophole has been that while some CNC machines are banned because they can have both military and civilian functions, most serve civilian industry. "Given their dual-use capability, you could even import the machines for other purposes, take them to pieces and use them however you want," said Lee.

The CNC song highlights this in its opening line: "Whatever it is, once we put our mind to it, there's a program to make it," it says.

(By James Pearson and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom in Washington, Lusha Zhang in Beijing; Editing by Soyoung Kim, Lincoln Feast and Sara Ledwith)

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North Korea will not be interested in diplomacy until it develops an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the US east coast, a North Korean official told CNN on Monday.

"Before we can engage in diplomacy with the Trump administration, we want to send a clear message that the DPRK has a reliable defensive and offensive capability to counter any aggression from the United States," the official said, according to CNN, using an abbreviation for the country's formal name.

North Korea's deputy UN ambassador, Kim In Ryong, echoed the sentiment on Monday: "Unless the hostile policy and the nuclear threat of the US is thoroughly eradicated, we will never put our nuclear weapons and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table under any circumstances," Kim said, according to Reuters.

Tension in the region is especially high as US and South Korean forces conduct and prepare to conduct major naval and ground exercises. North Korea often releases a flurry of incensed statements before US-South Korean drills, such as a recent one calling a drill a "reckless act of war maniacs."

Though the country's claims about its technology are often exaggerated, North Korea's latest advancement in its missile program have drawn concern from officials at the White House, who have said the country is "developing a pretty good nuclear reentry vehicle."

During a press conference on Thursday, the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, said he considered the North Korean threat "manageable," though he said the US could face a bigger problem if North Korea's missile program "grows beyond where it is today."

While North Korea appears intent on keeping diplomacy off the table for now, the US continues to seek out support in the region. President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-In next month in South Korea, where a White House statement says he will call for "maximizing pressure on North Korea."

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The steps the president has to take to fire a nuke are involved and complicated, but they work to safeguard against accidental launches and miscommunications.

That said, the entire process could happen in just a few short minutes. The following is a transcription of the animation.

It can take the US government just minutes to launch a nuclear weapon. Here's how it would work.

The president has the sole authority to call for a nuclear strike. Once the call is made, a series of critical steps follow.

The president first meets with top military advisers. The meeting would take place in the Situation Room. If the president is traveling, a call is made on a secure line.

If the president still wants to go through with the strike, the order is verified. To authenticate the order, a challenge code is read to the president. It's usually two phonetic letters like "Delta-Echo."

The president then receives the "biscuit", a laminated card that's always near the president. The biscuit has the matching response to the challenge code.

The Pentagon then broadcasts an encoded message to missile crews. The message is only about the length of a standard tweet.

It includes the war plan, "Sealed Authentication System" or (SAS) codes, and the actual missile launch codes. When the launch crews get the message they open lock safes to obtain the SAS codes. These codes are compared with the SAS codes included in the message.

If fired from a submarine the captain, executive officer, and two others authenticate the launch order. Fifteen minutes after receiving the order, the missiles could be ready to launch.

If fired from land, there are 50 missiles controlled by 5 launch crews in different locations. Each crew "votes" for the launch by turning their keys at the same time.

There are five different keys, but only two need to be turned to launch the missiles. In this scenario, the missiles could be ready to launch just minutes after the president's order. Once the missiles are launched, there's no turning back.

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• In remarks to South Korea's National Assembly on Wednesday, President Donald Trump warned North Korea "do not try us" and said underestimating the US would be a "fatal miscalculation."
• Trump appeared to abandon his earlier talk of "fire and fury" and said he wanted to achieve "peace through strength."
• He offered North Korea a pathway to discussions if it abandoned its nuclear program.

US President Donald Trump spoke directly to North Korea on Wednesday, warning "Do not underestimate us and do not try us" in remarks he gave before South Korea's National Assembly.

"This is a very different administration than the US has had in the past," Trump said, adding that interpreting the US's "past restraint as weakness" would be a "fatal miscalculation."

Trump, who is on a 13-day tour of Asia, arrived in South Korea on Tuesday and was headed to China after his speech Wednesday night. The 34-minute address lacked the type of "fire and fury" rhetoric he used over the summer and could be seen as evidence of a more peaceful approach to North Korea.

Trump said he wanted to achieve "peace through strength" and called on Russia and China to pressure North Korea more.

"We call on every nation, including China and Russia, to fully implement sanctions, downgrade diplomatic relations, and sever all ties of trade and technology," he said. "The longer we wait, the greater the danger grows and the fewer the options become."

"The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens with nuclear devastation," Trump added. "Now is the time for strength. If you want peace, you must stand strong at all times."

While Trump celebrated some of the military achievements of the US, including what he described as "defeating ISIS" and being in possession of "nuclear submarines," a large portion of Trump's speech was devoted to the modern history of the Korean Peninsula and North Korea's human-rights abuses.

The US president also praised South Korea's economy while characterizing North Korea as "a hell that no person deserves" and saying it was "not the paradise" the country's first leader, Kim Il Sung, envisioned.

Abandoning his previous assertion that "talking is not the answer," Trump said he was offering North Korea "a path" to a "much better future" if it ends its aggression and ballistic-missile developments and abandons its nuclear weapons program.

There is little chance, however, that North Korea will agree to those terms.

Trump appeared to stay largely on script during the speech but mentioned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's full name just once. This may have been a deliberate move by speechwriters to reduce the chances of improvisation, which led Trump to call Kim "Rocket Man" earlier this year.

Trump did not mention his attempt earlier in the day to visit the Korean Peninsula's Demilitarized Zone. His surprise visit to the region had to be aborted because of bad weather.

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