Panama Found North Korean Ship with Weapons Hidden in Sugar Containers,

reply to post by Trueman


Everybody missed the most interesting and possibly important part of the story. They litter Russia on April 12, with a stated destination of Havana. They disappeared off satellite tracking, until they crossed the Panama Canal into the Caribbean. Three months is a long time if they went straight from Russia to Cuba. What were they doing the rest of the time, anger why turn off their transponder.

cuba is exporting missles to north korea!!!!! I knew it!!!! time for war on someone!!!!!!

Originally posted by Zaphod58
Just to add a little more, it appears to be a Fan Song E, which is one of the newer versions of the radar. It can include electro optical guidance for use in jamming conditions, as well as an Electronic Counter-Counter Measures (ECCM) mode. If it's an E, then it's a G band radar, with 1mw of output, with a range of between 45 and 90 miles, depending on conditions and altitude of the target. All versions of the Fan Song can track 6 targets simultaneously. The E has two additional antennas, for the ECCM mode.

The S-75 (NATO name SA-2 Guideline) was developed to counter high altitude overflights by US aircraft. Its first kill was an RB-57 Canberra over China in 1959, while the aircraft was flying over 65,000 feet. It was hit by 3 missiles fired from the battery.

You mean to say that the SA-2 was used just as a decoy/shell to transport advanced system inside?

DUPLICATE POST...

reply to post by hp1229


No, the SA-2 was used by multiple countries until recently. The system was updated as the threat and counters matured. It's still dangerous to large aircraft, like the B-52, or transports, and the U-2, but it's far from a top of the line system.

Originally posted by seabag
reply to post by Trueman

 

Good find. OP! I just heard this on the radio on my way to work this morning.

I'm not surprised N. Korea is trying to get missile tech. They have to either figure out how to make them fly or start calling their missiles 'submarines' because they all seem to end up in the ocean.

This just shows how significant the Panama Canal is....can't wait to hear the spin.

Am I mistaken, or did the Panama Canal consortium recently sign over the kaboodle
to the PRChina? I don't think a recently acquired and widened channel (at great expense)
blown to sea level by one's next door neighbor would be taken too kindly... especially if
it's glowing for the next 75-120 years.

Not sure how much of it is the truth.

July 17, 2013 10:39 am
Cuba’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday confirmed that it sent missiles and other military equipment to North Korea aboard a ship that was seized by Panamanian government authorities.

In a statement, the Cuban ministry said the ship, the Chong Chon Gang, and its 35-member crew were detained.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to inform that said vessel sailed from a Cuban port to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, mainly loaded with 10,000 tons of sugar,” the statement said.

The military equipment included 240 metric tons of “obsolete defensive weapons,” including two anti-aircraft “complexes.”

The air defenses were descrsibed as “Volga,” the export version of the Soviet-era SA-2 surface-to-air missile systems, and the “Pechora,” the expert version of the SA-3.

Nine missiles, two Mig-21 aircraft, and 15 motors for the jet were included “to be repaired and returned to Cuba,” the statement said.

“The agreements subscribed by Cuba in this field are supported by the need to maintain our defensive capacity in order to preserve national sovereignty,” the statement said.

SOURCE

Originally posted by jhn7537
reply to post by GargIndia

 

Maybe these obsolete weapons were a "test run" for something more powerful, like say a nuke... They see what type of security there is and they find out if they can use the Panama Canal as a legitimate shipping lane moving forward... But who knows.. Maybe I'm connecting the dots all wrong...

edit on 17-7-2013 by jhn7537 because: (no reason given)

I think Cuba is telling the truth. It looks like stuff sent for repairs.

Anybody who is capable of striking US with nukes is unlikely to do it this way.

This incident also shows US on the edge. Terror from North Korea is added to terror from Muslim countries.

The United States will not go down from a random nuke strike on a US city. Unites States will go down in an all-out bloody war.

I see the comments of posters here - all remind me of a waning empire.

Before i saw this thread, i viewed North Korea as a strong independent country. Now it seems NK doesn't have enough material to create weponds, etc... since now they're smuggling them

reply to post by Zaphod58


I don't know that is fairly common and, or easy to figure out. Russia-N.K.- wherever else they trade-on there way to Cuba.

This probably isn't there first run either given the track record of the ship.

I am not surprised or alarmed by this except for the fact that they were stopped at the Canal. That kind of stuff happens there but it seems they tried to get through without proper paperwork or paying the necessary fees/bribes to get trough and now they are being made an example of.

reply to post by Grimpachi


According to the ships logs, they were supposed to go Russia-Havana with no stop in between. Which is what makes it interesting. Why not just say "Russia-N.K.-Havana" if they just went back home in between.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Yea that is a long period of time to be uncounted for but like I said it is a known smuggling ship and not unusual for them not to record there true route or keep a separate log book much like truckers did when I drove. Not that I smuggled I just knew how to shave hours.

I spent a few months time at the canal and a lot passes through there you hear stories.

It's still dangerous to large aircraft, like the B-52, or transports, and the U-2, but it's far from a top of the line system.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Or a presidential plane?

I thought I would post this here as well as in the thread it was posted in www.abovetopsecret.com... DPRK demands the ship crew and all cargo be set free, UN now has the ball in there court, and the US is staying out of it due to Cuba relations. That is the jest of the news article.

reply to post by bekod


Reading your info, I can see a great opportunity for USA to force Cuba into commercially profitable terms. They plead guilty.

reply to post by Trueman


Any kind of large slow plane would be in danger from them. They would have some protection from countermeasures systems, but not much.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by Trueman

 

Any kind of large slow plane would be in danger from them. They would have some protection from countermeasures systems, but not much.

The pictures do not tell the story of functioning systems.
It does look like stuff sent for repair, probably paid in sugar.

This incident is pretty insignificant in terms of world events. Nothing changes due to this.
North Korea is very unlikely to start a war, let alone WWIII.

The focus should be middle-east, the area where empires are created and destroyed.

Originally posted by GargIndia

The pictures do not tell the story of functioning systems.
It does look like stuff sent for repair, probably paid in sugar.

This incident is pretty insignificant in terms of world events. Nothing changes due to this.
North Korea is very unlikely to start a war, let alone WWIII.

Didn't say they were going to do either. I was simply answering a question about the SA-2, and it being an obsolete system.

reply to post by Gu1tarJohn


Avatar of the year award.

Anybody who is capable of striking US with nukes is unlikely to do it this way.

That's just it though...they aren't capable in the normal sense. According to intelligence analysts (and depending on which week it is, apparently), NK isn't capable of weaponizing nukes for use in ICBMs at present. So, assuming that is correct (which I don't, but let's assume for a moment).....

This is EXACTLY the way you'd do it. Smuggle a normal sized nuke in a civilian cargo ship. Back when the whole situation was heating up, this was said time and time again, and now, it appears that there were good reasons for the assumption.