Measuring at just 17 inches long and nearly 2 inches wide, Raytheon's new "Pike" precision-guided missile can hit targets more than 1.3 miles away, James Smith, director of advanced land warfare systems at Raytheon told Military​.com.

"Pike uses a digital, semi-active laser seeker to engage both fixed and slow-moving, mid-range targets," Smith said. "This new guided munition can provide the warfighter with precision, extended-range capability never before seen in a hand-held weapon on the battlefield."

The release claimed that the 1.5 pound missile can launch from today's standard M320 launcher, and engage a rocket motor a few feet after leaving the barrel. From there, it flies nearly smokeless, making it harder for enemies to track or detect, until hitting fixed or slow moving target up to 1.3 miles away. 

"In the current configuration, the warfighter will enter programmable laser codes prior to loading Pike into its launcher. Spiral development calls for multiple-round simultaneous programming and targeting with data link capabilities."

The M79 40mm grenade launcher was first put into action by US troops in Vietnam, where the cartoonish "bloop" noise it made earned it a couple cute nicknames (Bloop Gun, Bloop Tube, or Thumper Gun, for example) that undersold its destructive capabilities.

At first, the M79 was a standalone weapon, resembling a shotgun with a short, wide barrel. Later, the M79 gave way to newer models, like the M203, or today's M320.

Grenade launchers became available as an attachment for assualt rifles, appearing below muzzels of heavy duty operators from special forces troops, to border patrol guards, to over-the-top movie druglords like Scarface's Tony Montana.

Grenade launchers became known as effective medium range tools, sending grenades much farther than a human arm could throw, but still had an arched trajectory that limited range and required some finesse to properly land.

Another benefit of the launchers was it's ability to fire a range of different grenades for different situations, like fragmentation, white phospherous, or smoke. Raytheon's update to this weapons system leaves the launcher unchanged, and simply offers a high tech new munition.

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No piece of hardware epitomizes US military might like an aircraft carrier. Capable of carrying over 60 planes, these hulking vessels allow the US to project power around the world while checking the potentially destabilizing behavior of rival governments. 

But that balance might be starting to shift in East Asia, an area of increasing strategic concern to the US. In a time when China wants full control of the disputed South China Sea, Beijing has developed a potential carrier-killer: an anti-ship missile called the Dong Feng-21 (CSS-5) that could deal catastrophic damage to US vessels.  

Because of the missiles, the US could be less willing to place its vaunted carriers in a potential conflict with Beijing.

"[Carriers are] now targets for the world’s first operational antiship ballistic missiles,"Andrew Browne writes for WSJ, in reference to the Dong Feng-21.

The missiles are just one part of a larger Chinese military upgrade. "[S]hock and awe isn’t part of any rational game plan these days against China, whose military spending has been growing by an annual average of 11% since 1996," writes Browne, "narrowing the military gap with America faster than almost anybody thought possible."

The missile effectively makes deployment of carriers against China during a hypothetical conflict incredibly risky. This wasn't always the case, and US carriers have proven to be an effective instrument of US hard power in East Asia: In 1996, as the Wall Street Journal notes, the US sent two aircraft carrier groups towards Taiwan as Beijing was threatening the island. China quickly halted its various provocative actions. 

The Dong Feng-21 could make the US think twice before authorizing those kinds of risky deployments. The average unrefueled combat range of US aircraft carriers is now 496 nautical miles (NM), retired US Navy Capt. Jerry Hendrixnoted in a report for the Center for a New American Security. The DF-21, on the other hand, has an estimated range of between 800 and of 1,000 NM. 

"American power and permissive environments were assumed following the end of the Cold War, but the rise of new powers, including China and its pursuit of anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategies and capabilities to include the carrier-killing 1,000 nautical mile (nm) range Dong Feng-21 anti-ship ballistic missile, now threatens to push the Navy back beyond the range of its carrier air wings," Hendrix wrote

According to Hendrix, the missile is particularly challenging for the US Navy both because of its range and method of attack. The DF-21 strikes a target at hypersonic speed from a nearly vertical angle. It can also conduct defensive maneuvers that make the missile incredibly difficult to intercept. 

The possible risks associated with the the DF-21 have led the Navy to invest in a range of anti-ballistic missile technologies.  

“The USN is very concerned about the DF-21D, which is one reason it’s working so hard on ship-borne anti-ballistic missile technology," Robert Farley, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky's Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, wrote for The National Interest.  

"The USN is also working on other countermeasures, including strikes on DF-21 launch sites at the onset of war (potentially delivered from nuclear cruise missile submarines), and electronic warfare,” Farley wrote.

The DF-21 is also highly maneuverable. The missile, according to an April 2015 Department of Defense report, is road mobile. Batteries can be placed and moved throughout China, making then difficult to find and destroy.

The report noted that the missile, which had an estimated range at that time of 810 NM, was capable of targeting ships and aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea. 

SEE ALSO: Retired US Navy captain: The centerpiece of the Navy's future doubles down on a 20-year-old strategic mistake

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The US Navy has released video showing the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG-71) taking out a ballistic missile near Scotland.

The Oct. 20 exercise in the North Atlantic Ocean was billed as the first time a Navy ship shot down a ballistic defense missile at a foreign range.

The video shows a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IA guided interceptor launching from the deck of the ship before it successfully intercepted a short-range Terrier Orion ballistic missile fired from the Hebridges Range in Scotland, according to the Navy.

Check out the video below: 

The SM-3 was one of two anti-ship cruise missiles launched at the target, the Navy said in a press release. The USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) also fired an SM-2 during the exercise.

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Russian nuclear forces conducted a large-scale exercise last week that included test firings of several long-range missiles along with dual-capable shorter range ballistic and cruise missiles, according to US officials.

The US Strategic Command, meanwhile, is conducting a similar nuclear command and control exercise, but without firing any nuclear missiles.

The Russian exercise was closely monitored by US intelligence agencies and was conducted in greater secrecy than past nuclear war games have been, according to officials and military analysts.

A US defense official said the Russian war games involved firing an SS-N-18 submarine-launched ballistic missile, or SLBM, an SS-N-23 SLBM, a land-based mobile SS-25 intercontinental ballistic missile, and a new SSN-30A Kalibr long-range ship-fired missile.

The Russians also practiced firing an air-launched cruise missile during the Oct. 30 maneuvers.

The Kalibr is an intermediate-range land-attack cruise missile that was first used by Russia in combat in Syria against rebel forces last month.

“In general, the results of the drills demonstrated high combat readiness of strategic nuclear forces and high-precision long-range weapons,” said Gen. Sergey Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, on Tuesday, according to the state-run Itar-Tass news agency.

Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon nuclear forces official, said the Russian defense ministry described the exercise as routine, despite the unusual missile firings from land-based forces, submarines, and strategic bombers.

“Overall, they were more secretive than they have been in the past about this exercise,” Schneider said. “It was announced by the Russian defense ministry, not the Kremlin and fewer details were provided.”

A ministry statement said the exercise practiced “the reliability of relaying combat-training orders and signals along the entire command and control vertical, from the Russian national defense control center to the command posts of formations and military units.”

Russian forces included units of the Strategic Missile Troops, Northern and Pacific Fleets, Caspian Sea flotilla, and long-range aviation.

The SS-25 was fired from the Plesetsk launch site some 500 miles north of Moscow.

Submarine missiles were fired from the Barents Sea near Norway and the Sea of Okhotsk in the Pacific.

A missile warship in the Caspian launched a Kalibr cruise missile at a training target, and Tu-160 Blackjack bombers fired cruise missiles at target ranges in northeastern Russia and on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.

A short-range Iskander cruise missile was launched against a target in the Kapustin Yar range near the border with Kazakhstan.

A 3-minute, 44-second video of the exercises was posted on the Russian Defense Ministry Facebook page.

Schneider said the use of long-range non-strategic cruise missiles, including the Kalibr, was new for the Russians. Another new strategic missile thought to be strictly conventional was the R-500 ground-launched cruise missile.

“The use of these missiles in a strategic nuclear exercise tends to confirm Russian press reports that they are both nuclear capable,” he said.

The R-500 reportedly has a range of 620 miles or more, making it a possible violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Schneider said.

“If it is a ‘high-precision long-range weapon’ as the Russians say, it clearly would violate the INF Treaty,” he said. “The Obama administration has not reached this judgment yet but it hardly wants to find more Russian INF Treaty violations.”

The administration believes another ground-launched cruise missile, the SSC-X-8, is the treaty-breaking system. So far, the administration has not responded to the treaty breach, despite pressure from Congress to do so.

Meanwhile, the US Strategic Command began its annual nuclear exercise called Global Thunder 2016 on Monday.

“The United States’ ability to maintain a safe, secure, effective and credible nuclear deterrent is foundational to our national security and contributes to the security of our allies and partners,” said Adm. Cecil D. Haney, the commander of Strategic Command, in a statement.

“This exercise, and our continued focus on maintaining key capabilities and skills, ensures US Stratcom’s strategic forces remain ready, 24/7, providing flexible and credible options for the president and the Department of Defense.”

The exercise, held with the US-Canada North American Aerospace Defense Command, is being held along with another Arctic-focused exercise called Vigilant Shield, taking place in several locations in North America.

Unlike the Russian nuclear war games, the details of this exercise are secret, a Stratcom spokesman said.

A statement said the exercise checks readiness and validates “the ability to identify and mitigate attacks across all of US Stratcom’s mission areas, with a specific focus on cyber, space, missile defense and nuclear readiness.”

Training requires military components, including task forces and command posts, to evaluate the ability of nuclear forces “to deter, and if necessary, defeat a military attack against the United States and to employ forces as directed by the president.”

“To ensure resilience, redundancy and survivability of our nation’s strategic deterrent forces, the scenario for Global Thunder integrates nearly every conceivable strategic threat to our nation and calls upon all the US Stratcom capabilities that would be provided to geographic combatant commanders in a real-world crisis: space, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, global strike, and ballistic missile defense capabilities,” the command statement said.

Air Force Maj. Matthew Miller, a Stratcom spokesman, declined to specify threats or locations tested in the exercise.

“As a matter of policy, we do not discuss the details of specific operations associated with exercises,” he said.

You can watch a clip of the exercise below:

SEE ALSO: The Russian military is facing several 'looming disasters' in Syria

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Social media went nuts Saturday night because of reports of a bright light that appeared in the sky over the West Coast. The light appeared to be trailing an object before eventually burning out over the San Francisco Bay Area.

A Navy spokesperson told The San Diego Union-Tribune the lights were from a test conducted by submarine USS Kentucky deployed in the Pacific. At approximately 6 p.m., the USS Kentucky fired an unarmed Lockheed Martin Trident II missile.

Local news outlets first suggested the light may have been the result of a meteor shower.

There were other reports that it was a plane or a rocket.

Similar occurrences have been noted when the US armed services conduct exercises in local airspace. Reuters reported late Saturday afternoon that nighttime flights into and out of Los Angeles International Airport would be diverted away from airspace over the Pacific Ocean for precisely that reason.

The US military and FAA usually do not disclose the specific nature of such exercises beyond an acknowledgment that it happened, but Reuters reports that airspace over the Pacific was "activated" Friday night for the naval exercise. It's expected to remain off-limits to other aircraft until Thursday.

Here's a map of the US military operating areas in the Pacific:

Here's a video of what Californians saw:

Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and Iran have signed a contract for Moscow to supply Tehran with S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, Sergei Chemezov, the chief executive of Russian state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec, was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying on Monday.

"S-300, the air defense system, the contract has already been signed," Chemezov was quoted as saying at the Dubai Airshow.

A nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers earlier this deal has put Sunni-ruled Gulf monarchies on edge: They fear Tehran's rapprochement with the West will allow it to pursue an expansionist agenda in the region.

Chemezov said Gulf countries had no reason to feel threatened by the deal.

"This is defense equipment. And we are ready to offer this defense equipment to any country," Chemezov later told Reuters in Dubai, speaking through interpreters.

"So if the Gulf countries are not going to attack Iran ... why should they be threatened? Because this is defense equipment."

He said that Saudi Arabia, arch-rival of Iran, had approached his firm "several times" requesting that it not deliver the equipment.

"Five years ago ... even now, up to now ... And we said that the S-300 is not capable to attack ... to reach the neighboring countries."

(Reporting by Alexander Winning in Moscow and Yara Bayoumy in Dubai; Writing by Maria Kiselyova/Yara Bayoumy, Editing by William Maclean)

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea appeared to conduct a submarine-launched ballistic missile test on Saturday but it ended in failure with no indication that the missile successfully ejected from the vessel and took off, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

The test, if confirmed, follows a test-launch in May of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), which Pyongyang boasted as a success but has not been independently verified.

"There is no identification of a missile taking flight and only fragments of a safety cover was observed so it's highly likely that the launch was a misfire," a South Korean government source was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

South Korea's Defence Ministry declined to confirm the report citing its policy of not commenting on intelligence matters.

The North's May test launch of an SLBM fueled alarm in South Korea and the United States about the possibility of advances in the military capabilities of a state that is pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

But a high-ranking U.S. military official and private rocket experts questioned the authenticity of photographs released by the North of the May launch saying they were likely modified.

The missile was likely launched from a specially designed submerged barge and not from a submarine and that the North is years away from developing such technology, some experts have said.

But South Korea said it believed the rocket was fired from a submarine and flew about 150 meters out of the water.

North Korea has defied U.N. sanctions for its missile and nuclear tests and is believed to be developing a nuclear device small enough to be mounted on a ballistic missile but it is believed to be some years away from perfecting the technology.

North Korea is technically still at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S. troops are based in South Korea in combined defense with the South against the North.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park; Editing by Dominic Evans)

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The US Navy's gigantic USS Zumwalt has set out to sea.

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Iran just launched a ballistic missile in apparent violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Iran "tested a liquid-fueled missile ... capable of carrying a nuclear warhead" last month, citing two anonymous US officials. 

The test would mark Iran's second illicit ballistic-missile launch since the landmark nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached between Iran and a US-led group of six countries earlier this year.

Iran also tested a long-range, nuclear-capable Emad-class missile in October.

The July nuclear deal is aimed at implementing a number of non-binding controls on Iran's ability to stockpile fissile materials for a nuclear weapon over the next 15 years, in exchange for the lifting of most US and EU and all UN sanctions on the country. 

The deal's implementation also supersedes all previous UN Security Council resolutions related to Iran's nuclear program. So though the two missile tests are illegal under the current international framework, Iran will only be "'called upon'" to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years" once the JCPOA goes into effect, according to Reuters.

The ballistic tests might complicate the deal's implementation. Iran has violated UNSC resolutions and launched nuclear-capable long-range missiles — at the same time it's agreed to a series of over decade-long limitations on its nuclear program. This contradictory behavior that might suggest a split within Iran's notoriously fictionalized regime.

But the test probably won't come as much of a surprise to US officials, as there have been two major indications that the US didn't think nuclear diplomacy would be enough to arrest Iran's ballistic-missile progress.

First, the US's top missile defense official expected these kinds of tests to take place. Vice Admiral James Syring, the head of the US Missile Defense Agency, testified before congressional subcommittees on June 11, 2014, and March 19, 2015. Both times, he said he anticipated major Iranian ballistic missile advances in the near term.

In his June 2014 testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee, Syring explicitly warned "Iran could develop and test an ICBM capable of reaching the United States by 2015."

His assessment echoed deputy defense Secretary M. Elaine Bunn's April 2, 2014, congressional testimony that Iran had the capability and intention of developing long-range, space-capable weapons systems.

"While Iran has not yet deployed an ICBM, its continued efforts on space launch vehicles, along with its desire to deter the United States and our allies, provide Iran with both the means and the motivation to develop longer-range missiles, including an ICBM," Bunn told the Senate Armed Forces Committee's subcommittee on strategic forces.

In his March 2015 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on strategic forces, Syring was less specific about Iran's missile-test plans. But he laid out a picture of a country looking to expand, rather than curtail, its capabilities.

"Iran has publicly stated it intends to launch a space-launch vehicle as early as this year (2015) that could be capable of intercontinental ballistic missile ranges if configured as such," Syring said. "Iran also has steadily increased its ballistic missile force, deploying next-generation short- and medium-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs and MRBMs) with increasing accuracy and new submunition payloads."

Ballistic development was also apparently integral to Iran's future military posture.

"Tehran’s overall defense strategy relies on a substantial inventory of theater ballistic missiles capable of striking targets in southeastern Europe," Syring said.

Both Syring and Bunn's assessments came well after the implementation of the interim nuclear agreement with Iran, which was reached in November 2013 and set the stage for the series of negotiations that culminated in the final landmark deal. Even during negotiations for a major arms control accord, top US missile defense officials did not expect Iran to slow its missile development.

And the US recently restarted a missile defense program that's especially well-suited to countering an emerging Iranian capability. In August, nearly a month after the JCPOA was reached, the Department of Defense awarded a $9.8 million contract to Boeing to "define a concept" for a multiple-kill vehicle or multiple-object kill vehicle (MVK). An MKV is an anti-missile system in which a single interceptor launches several projectiles that can destroy multiple incoming targets.

An MKV program was killed in 2009 shortly after the start of Barack Obama's first term as president, but reintroduced under the May 2015 National Defense Authoritarian Act.

According to Space News, the MKV fills a gap in US missile defense capabilities. In one possible attack scenario, an adversary would launch warheads along with decoys meant to fool existing defense systems.

An MVA is supposed to be capable of destroying both the decoy and the actual warhead. It's also possible an adversary would launch multiple missile salvos specifically meant to fool US missile defense that an MKV would still be capable of intercepting.

In his March 2015 testimony, Syring touted the benefits of the MKV, claiming it would "revolutionize" US missile defense. He also identified Iran as one country pursuing the kinds of capabilities that the MKV is almost purpose-built to counter.

"Iran ... has publicly demonstrated the ability to launch simultaneous salvos of multiple rockets and missiles," Syring said.

According to Space News, the Pentagon aims for the MKV to go online by 2020. Assuming the JCPOA is implemented next year, the nuclear deal's nonbinding limits on Iran's ballistic missile program will be lifted in 2024.

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Emad rocket that Iran tested on Oct. 10 was a ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, which makes it a violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution, a team of sanctions monitors said in a confidential new report.

"On the basis of its analysis and findings the Panel concludes that Emad launch is a violation by Iran of paragraph 9 of Security Council resolution 1929," the council's Panel of Experts on Iran said in its report.

Reuters on Tuesday reviewed the 10-page report, which was dated Dec. 11 and went to members of the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee in recent days.

SEE ALSO: The US is building a new advanced missile defense system — and Iran could be one reason why

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The US military is finding itself in an extremely compromised position after a Hellfire missile, originally sent to Europe for NATO training exercises, found it's way to Cuba, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Though the missile had the explosive elements removed, US officials worry that Cuba could have shared secrets of the missile's targeting and sensor technology with nations like North Korea or China.

Sources close to the matter told the Journal that this is one of the worst known cases of sensitive US technology slipping into the wrong hands.

For their part, US officials do not believe that the Cubans tried to reverse-engineer the missile.

As relations between the US and Cuba have thawed over the last year, the US has simultaneously been trying to get the missile back and determine how exactly it got to Cuba.

“Did someone take a bribe to send it somewhere else? Was it an intelligence operation, or just a series of mistakes? That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out,” one US official told the Wall Street Journal

What is known is that Lockheed Martin sent the missile to Europe for a NATO training exercise after getting permission from the State Department. The missile was clearly marked as being subject to intense customs controls.

From Lockheed Martin, it went to Spain. After that, the missile inexplicably began to travel around Europe before ending up in Germany.

By the time officials realized the missile was missing, it was on an Air France flight to Havana.

The Hellfire missile is an air-to-ground, anti-armor projectile that relies on radar sensor technology, an update on laser-guided models of the past. US attack helicopters equipped with Hellfire missiles have been a mainstay in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

“Now it’s a proliferation concern—someone else now understands how it works and what may have been cutting edge for us is deconstructed and packaged into what other players sell on the open market—and possibly provided to countries that we wouldn’t sell to,” Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation told the Journal.

Not only has the US sanctioned Cuba, but US arms dealers are also prohibited from selling to Cuba under the Arms Export Control Act.

"Each year, there are about 1,500 disclosures of potential violations to the Arms Export Control Act" the Journal reports.

“This is a complicated business, mistakes are inherent in complicated businesses,” a US official told the Journal in defense of the arms trade. “Mistakes are a part of any human endeavor. Mistakes are made.”

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SEOUL (Reuters) - Footage released last week by North Korea purporting to show the firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) appears to be fake, according to studies by U.S. experts.

In defiance of a U.N. ban, North Korea has said it has ballistic missile technology which would allow it to launch a nuclear warhead from a submarine, though analysis of North Korean state media images casts doubt on the claim.

North Korea released the submarine launch footage after it separately conducted a fourth nuclear weapons test last Wednesday.

North Korean state television aired footage on Friday of the submarine test said to have taken place in December. Unlike a previous SLBM test in May, it was not announced at the time.

South Korea's military said on Saturday North Korea appeared to have modified the video and edited it with Scud missile footage from 2014 although an official told Reuters the ejection technology might have improved since the May test.

An analysis by the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) shows two frames of video from state media where flames engulf the missile and small parts of its body break away.

"The rocket ejected, began to light, and then failed catastrophically," Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute's CNS, said in an email. "North Korea used heavy video editing to cover over this fact."

Hanham said North Korea state media used different camera angles and editing to make it appear the launch was several continuous launches, when in fact it was a single event.

North Korean propagandists used rudimentary editing techniques to crop and flip old video footage of an earlier SLBM test and Scud missile launch, the CNS study showed.

In an analysis on the 38 North monitoring website, John Schilling, an aerospace engineer who is a specialist in satellite and launch vehicle propulsion systems, said it appeared from the video that the launch was conducted from a submerged barge rather than a submarine.

"The failed launch, combined with testing from a barge shows that North Korea still has a long way to go to develop this system," he said. "An initial operational capability of a North Korean ballistic-missile submarine is not expected before 2020."

North Korea's claim that its most recent nuclear test was of a more advanced and powerful hydrogen bomb drew skepticism from the U.S. government and experts. It remains unclear if North Korea has developed a nuclear device small enough to mount on a missile.

(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park and Hyunyoung Yi in Seoul and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Andrew Hay)

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range missile as soon as in a week, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported early on Thursday, citing an unnamed Japanese government official.

The official cited signs of possible preparations for a missile launch based on analysis of satellite imagery of the North's Tongchang-ri missile test site on its west coast.

The report came as U.N. Security Council members were discussing fresh sanctions against the North after it conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6. The North is already under sanctions for its nuclear and missile programmes.

North Korea last conducted a long-range rocket launch in late 2012, successfully putting an object into orbit in what experts believed to be part of its effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

The North is also seen to be working to miniaturise a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, but many experts say it is some time away from perfecting the technology.

The Kyodo report gave no other details about the satellite imagery analyses.

On Wednesday in Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed on the need for a significant new U.N. Security resolution against the North but there were few signs of concrete progress.

U.S. Navy Admiral Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said on Wednesday before the Kyodo report was published that North Korea's actions underscored the importance of strengthening an alliance among Japan, South Korea and the United States.

He said he supported reviewing the possibility of converting a U.S. Aegis missile defense test site in Hawaii into a combat-ready facility to bolster U.S. defenses against ballistic missile attacks, an initiative first reported by Reuters last week.

Harris also told reporters after his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that it made sense to put a mobile missile defense system known as the Terminal High Area Defense in South Korea.

That decision must be made jointly by the United States and South Korea, he said.

North Korea said on Jan. 6 it exploded a hydrogen bomb, although the United States and other governments and experts voiced scepticism that it had made such a technological advance. 

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Chang)

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The US has seen increased activity around a North Korea site suggesting movement of components and propellant to be able to conduct a space launch in the near future, a US official told Reuters on Thursday.

"Our concern though is that they do a space-launch but really it's the same technology to develop ICBMs," the official said, referring to inter-continental ballistic missiles.

The official added such a launch could happen within a couple of weeks.

On Wednesday, Japan's Kyodo news agency cited an unnamed Japanese official saying that North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range missile as soon as in a week.

The official cited signs of possible preparations for a missile launch based on analysis of satellite imagery of the North's Tongchang-ri missile-test site on its west coast.

The report came as UN Security Council members were discussing fresh sanctions against North Korea after it conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6.

North Korea is already under sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea last conducted a long-range rocket launch in late 2012, successfully putting an object into orbit in what experts believed to be part of its effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The North is also seen to be working to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, but many experts say it is some time away from perfecting the technology.

The Kyodo report gave no other details about the satellite-imagery analyses.

Meanwhile, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation to broaden sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program, human rights record and cyber activities.

The committee passed the measure by unanimous voice vote and members said they expected it would be approved by the full Senate and, eventually, signed into law by President Barack Obama.

On Wednesday in Beijing, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed on the need for a significant new UN Security resolution against the North, but there were few signs of concrete progress.

US Navy Admiral Harry Harris, commander of US Pacific Command, said on Wednesday before the Kyodo report was published that North Korea's actions underscored the importance of strengthening an alliance among Japan, South Korea, and the US.

He said he supported reviewing the possibility of converting a US Aegis missile-defense test site in Hawaii into a combat-ready facility to bolster US defenses against ballistic-missile attacks, an initiative first reported by Reuters last week.

Harris also told reporters after his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that it made sense to put a mobile missile-defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea.

The THAAD system's mobility and strategic battery-unit placement is designed to counter threats around the globe. In April 2013, the Pentagon deployed a THAAD battery to Guam in order to deter North Korean provocations and further defend the Pacific region.

The THAAD missile does not carry a warhead, instead designed to use pure kinetic energy to deliver "hit-to-kill" lethality to ballistic missiles inside or outside of the atmosphere.

That deployment decision must be made jointly by the US and South Korea, Harris said.

North Korea said on January 6 that it had exploded a hydrogen bomb, although the US, other governments, and experts voiced skepticism that it had made such a technological advance.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Chang)

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The White House said on Tuesday any satellite launch by North Korea would be viewed by the international community as another destabilizing provocation by that country.

"I feel confident in telling you that the international community would regard a step like that by the North Koreans as just another irresponsible provocation and a clear violation of their international obligations," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.

North Korea notified UN agencies on Tuesday that it plans to launch a satellite this month, which could advance the isolated country's development of long-range missile technology.

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Russel said a launch, "using ballistic missile technology," would be an "egregious violation" of North Korea's international obligations.

"This argues even more strongly for action by the UN Security Council and the international community to impose real consequences for the destabilizing action that (North Korea) has taken and is taking," Russel said.

He said it showed the need "to raise the cost to the leaders through the imposition of tough additional sanctions and of course by ensuring the thorough and rigorous enforcement of the existing sanctions."

Russel said negotiations were "active" at the UN and that the United States and North Korea's main ally China "share the view that there needs to be consequences to North Korea for its defiance and for its threatening behaviors."

"Our diplomats are in deep discussion in New York about how to tighten sanctions, how to respond to violations," he said.

Asked about China's cautious response to US calls for stronger and more effective sanctions on Pyongyang and Beijing's stress on the need for dialogue, Russel said:

"Yet another violation by the DPRK of the UN Security Council resolution, coming on the heels of its nuclear test, would be an unmistakable slap in the face to those who argue that you just need to show patience and dialogue with the North Koreans, but not sanctions."

Meanwhile, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation to broaden sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program, human rights record, and cyber activities.

The committee passed the measure by unanimous voice vote and members said they expected it would be approved by the full Senate and, eventually, signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Space launch or ballistic missile test?

The US has seen increased activity around a North Korea site suggesting movement of components and propellant to be able to conduct a space launch in the near future, a US official told Reuters in late January.

"Our concern though is that they do a space-launch but really it's the same technology to develop ICBMs," the official said, referring to inter-continental ballistic missiles.

The official added such a launch could happen within a couple of weeks.

Late last month, Japan's Kyodo news agency cited an unnamed Japanese official saying that North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range missile as soon as in a week.

The official cited signs of possible preparations for a missile launch based on analysis of satellite imagery of the North's Tongchang-ri missile-test site on its west coast.

The report came as UN Security Council members were discussing fresh sanctions against North Korea after it conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6.

North Korea is already under sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea last conducted a long-range rocket launch in late 2012, successfully putting an object into orbit in what experts believed to be part of its effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The North is also seen to be working to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, but many experts say it is some time away from perfecting the technology.

The Kyodo report gave no other details about the satellite-imagery analyses.

America's military response

US Navy Admiral Harry Harris, commander of US Pacific Command, said on Wednesday before the Kyodo report was published that North Korea's actions underscored the importance of strengthening an alliance among Japan, South Korea, and the US.

He said he supported reviewing the possibility of converting a US Aegis missile-defense test site in Hawaii into a combat-ready facility to bolster US defenses against ballistic-missile attacks, an initiative first reported by Reuters last week.

Harris also told reporters after his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that it made sense to put a mobile missile-defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea.

The THAAD system's mobility and strategic battery-unit placement is designed to counter threats around the globe. n April 2013, the Pentagon deployed a THAAD battery to Guam in order to deter North Korean provocations and further defend the Pacific region.

The THAAD missile does not carry a warhead, instead designed to use pure kinetic energy to deliver "hit-to-kill" lethality to ballistic missiles inside or outside of the atmosphere.

That deployment decision must be made jointly by the US and South Korea, Harris said.

North Korea said on January 6 that it had exploded a hydrogen bomb, although the US, other governments, and experts voiced skepticism that it had made such a technological advance.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Chang)

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Iran will continue to develop its missile program and it should not be considered a threat to neighboring and friendly countries, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted the head of the army as saying on Thursday.

Under a deal reached between Iran and six major powers in 2015, most international sanctions imposed on Iran due to its nuclear program were lifted last month. However, sanctions imposed on its missile program were not lifted.

According to a July 20 United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the deal, Iran is still "called upon" to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years.

In October, Iran violated a United Nations ban by testing a precision-guided ballistic missile, prompting a U.S. threat to impose more sanctions. In December, President Hassan Rouhani ordered Iran's missile program to be expanded.

"Iran's missile capability and its missile program will become stronger. We do not pay attention and do not implement resolutions against Iran, and this is not a violation of the nuclear deal," Fars quoted commander-in-chief Ataollah Salehi as saying.

He was referring to Iran's deal with world powers last year to curb a nuclear program that the West feared, despite Tehran's denials, was aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.

"Our missile program is not a threat against our friends but it is a threat against our enemies. Israel should understand what it means," Salehi said.

Opposition to Israel, which Tehran refuses to recognize since its 1979 Islamic revolution, is a central policy in the Muslim Shi'ite-dominated country. 

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Raissa Kasolowsky)

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India just test-launched an indigenous, nuclear-capable ballistic missile.

On February 15, the India's Economic Times reported that the country's military had fired a Prithvi-II missile from a mobile launcher.

According to the Economic Times, the missile was "randomly chosen from the production stock," meaning that it wasn't specifically modified for testing purposes.

This isn't the first test of the Prithvi-II, which has a range of over 200 miles according to Economic Times, and over 150 miles, according to the Arms Control Association.

But although the missile entered service in the Indian military in 2003 and was first test-launched in 1996, it's experienced test failures as recently as 2011, while the missile used in this week's test did not hit its intended target even though it reached its intended distance and altitude.

The fact the Indian military has had even mixed success in firing an apparently randomly selected Prithvi-II from a mobile launcher suggests that the country really has developed a semi-reliable nuclear delivery system that it can indigenously produce. 

The Prithvi II gives India the ability to make its own mobile nuclear-capable ballistic missiles with a far-enough range to hit nearly every major city in Pakistan from inside Indian territory.

An indigenous missile capability is crucial for India, which is a confirmed nuclear weapons state but not a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Although India's nuclear program has been semi-recognized through its landmark 2008 nuclear treaty with the United States, the fact that the country has developed nuclear weapons outside of the NPT makes it highly unlikely that an outside country would provide Delhi with a strategic delivery system.

India also faces a ballistic missile asymmetry.

China has aided Pakistan in its ballistic missile development, providing nuclear-capable missiles with a 186-mile range along with suspected technological assistance on longer-range delivery systems.

In contrast, the US discouraged India from developing the Prithvi class of missiles throughout the 1990s.

Washington is understandably nervous about the appearance of encouraging strategic weapons proliferation, and one of the rationales of the 2008 nuclear treaty was to give the US additional leverage over the development of India's program.

The Prithvi II encompasses the tensions of India's nuclear weapons program.

On the one hand, Delhi aspires to a position of global leadership that an overly reckless nuclear weapons program would arguably undermine.

At the same time, India needs to keep up its deterrent capability against its primary strategic opponent, a nuclear-armed Pakistan. 

Pakistan is determined to have a nuclear edge on India, building warheads at a faster pace than its rival and testing an intercontinental missile that would be capable of covering the entirety of Indian territory.

In contrast, India is more populous and less diplomatically isolated — and can produce road-mobile missiles capable of hitting just about any major city inside of Pakistan.

Both countries' ballistic missile development show that India and Pakistan's rivalry is as dangerous as ever.

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Signaling a possible further militarization of the region, China has placed advanced surface-to-air missiles on one of its claimed islands in the South China Sea. 

Beijing placed two batteries of eight surface-to-air Hongqi-9 (HQ-9) missiles on Woody Island, which is part of the disputed Paracel Island chain in the disputed waters.

Although this is not the first time that China has placed weapons on the island chain, the technical abilities of the missiles combined with Beijing's overall more aggressive policy in the region is a potential game changer. 

“Our analysis of the imagery released indicates China has deployed a fourth-generation SAM system to the South China Sea. This represents a significant military escalation. This leapfrogs steps such as deploying shorter-range systems and increasing the tempo of visits by military aircraft to the islands," writes Neil Ashdown, the Deputy Editor of IHS Jane’s Intelligence Review.

"However, the deployment is still less significant from a military perspective for the US and others than the deployment of systems such as the YJ-type anti-ship cruise missiles.”

Still, the deployment is meant as a signal to the US and likely to other nations throughout the region that China is serious about backing up its claims to the region and intends of fully taking control of the islands that it has claimed. 

“Woody Island is being turned into a forward-operating base,” Richard Bitzinger, a defense expert at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies told GlobalPost. “They’re trying to turn it into a proper garrison.”

And the use of HQ-9s for this mission is telling. The weapons are one of the most advanced weapons in China's arsenal. according to Bitzinger. 

The missiles are largely constructed from a mix of Chinese domestic systems and reverse engineered Russian S-300 and US Patriot missile system technologies. This allows the HQ-9 to track, target, and intercept both aircraft and incoming missiles, Missile Threat, a project of the George C. Marshall and Claremont Institutes, notes. 

The HQ-9, Missile Threat reports, includes modified versions of the propulsion and guidance systems from US Patriot Missiles.

Peter Goon, of the think tank Air Power Australia, has a direct assessment of what the HQ-9 missiles are for. 

“They’re principally for killing aircraft," he told GlobalPost. 

In total, the missiles have a range upwards of 125 nautical miles, which would grant a large defensive radius to China's activities in the Paracel Islands as well as to the Chinese island of Hainan. Hainan, which is just over 200 miles away from Woody Island, is quickly taking on new importance for the Chinese military.

Beijing is expanding its naval presence at the city of Sanya on Hainan, and the HQ-9s are likely there to help protect the island's flank, The New York Times reports.

The decision to place the missiles on the island comes after China told the US it agreed to not militarize the South China Sea. However, Beijing sees the Paracels as its own domestic territory, and has defended the placement as in accordance with international law, the Times notes. 

“We’re starting to see rapidly changes in the balance of power between China and the West so, really, it was not unexpected that the Chinese would move these [missile] capabilities down there,” Goon told GlobalPost. “Historically, they’ve always seen the South China Sea as their front yard.”

Goon's assessment is echoed by a recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The think tank notes that by 2030 the South China Sea will essentially exist as a "Chinese lake" due to Beijing's focus on acquiring submarines and aircraft carriers, alongside its continued development and militarization of islands in the region.

Currently, the various islands and atolls in the South China Sea are claimed and disputed in a various mix principally by Taiwan, Vietnam, China, the Philippines.

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Turkey has the ability to build a planned long-range missile system domestically, the defense industry undersecretary said on Friday, adding he did not rule out the possibility of working with companies that had previously submitted bids in a tender.

"We could produce the long-range missile system locally. We could also evaluate opportunities for cooperation including those who submitted bids in the tender," Ismail Demir told broadcaster NTV.

Turkey last year canceled the $3.4-billion tender to develop the missile system that had been provisionally awarded to China, after the award stirred the concern of Ankara's NATO allies.

Other bidders in the tender included US firm Raytheon and Franco-Italian group Eurosam, owned by the multinational European missile maker MBDA and France's Thales.

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American-made "Hellfire" missiles seem to have a habit of turning up where you don’t expect them.

A “dummy” Hellfire used for training purposes was mistakenly shipped to Havana, Cuba, in 2014, after being used in a NATO exercise. Even though the training model contains no explosives, it took the US two years (and much careful diplomacy) to get it back.

On Saturday, a pair of the same training missiles was pulled from a crate on a civilian AirSerbia flight that was on its way to the US. It had departed from Beirut, and was intercepted in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

Serbia’s N1 television said Sunday that airport security discovered the missiles after bomb-sniffing dogs raised the alarm. News agencies following the story said the final destination for the missiles was Portland, Oregon.

The news of the discovery prompted a brief moment of panic: It appeared that someone might have been trying to smuggle live missiles on a civilian airliner. European aviation officials expressed concern about security at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri airport earlier this year, and British Airways stopped flying cargo from there this month.

"Experts are determining whether the missiles were equipped with live or training warheads," a source at the Serbian prosecutor’s office told Reuters. While the dogs provoked the inspection, officials said the missiles were packed in proper transportation crates and carried the necessary paperwork.

It wasn’t until Monday that the Lebanese army said the missiles were training models that contained no explosives, and were being sent back to the company that manufactured them.

Contrary to initial reports, the missiles were on their way to Portland, Maine, according to a US official familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of commercial arms deals are confidential.

They being shipped back to a private US company — Orbital ATK, based in Texas — who provided them to the Lebanese army on a temporary basis as part of a US government program to integrate the Hellfire Missile System into aircraft used by the country's armed forces, the official said. 

Aviation experts say the practice of shipping these “inert” missiles on commercial airlines is common. Which means the next time you find yourself squeezed into a middle seat in coach, there’s a chance a couple of these dummy explosives will be riding alongside your checked bags.

But the official insisted the training versions were safe, comparing them to an anatomical model at a doctor's office. “They are completely safe. They have no warhead, no explosive charge, no rocket fuel. Nothing dangerous on them.”

Although dummy missiles are not dangerous, they are still considered controlled items, and subject to stringent checks.

The missiles that turned up over the weekend are part of a proposed $146 million package of military support announced by the US State Department in June 2015. The Lebanese army has faced pitched battles with Islamic State militants on its eastern border with Syria. 

It’s unclear what may have alerted the bomb-sniffing dog to the crate, but the US official suggested that residue from a training exercise could explain it.

The real-deal Hellfire missile packs a major punch: Most commonly fired from helicopters and other aircraft at ground targets, the anti-armor munition has been used liberally in Pakistan and Yemen, often deployed from Predator drones. Lockheed Martin manufactures it, as well as the “dummy” version known as the "Captive Air Training Missile."

Senior Correspondent Richard Hall is based in Beirut, Lebanon.

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