Golez: Cyber attack is one option for the US to disrupt ICBM launches: "Trump Has Alternative Military Options for North Korea" | National News | US News https://t.co/TKcuQbYVPR
I quote from the US News & World Report:
1. US Cyberweapons to disrupt ICBM launches: "The New York Times first reported in March that the Trump administration had inherited from Obama highly advanced cyberweapons that can meddle with North Korea's ability to launch a nuclear ICBM successfully. Administration sources confirmed to U.S. News that the White House saw these as "an insurance policy."
"Let's go and disrupt these programs from the counterproliferation perspective to the best that we can," the cybersecurity expert said at the time. "It's a viable way to disrupt the capability development inside North Korea."
"Changing one measurement on one schematic, for example, could cause an entire missile system to malfunction. Hacking into the missile system itself could also disrupt actually arming and launching of the weapon.
2. Missile shields: "Ultimately, these options, along with conventional nuclear deterrence and missile shields, contribute to the U.S. belief that it can prevent North Korea from beginning any kind of armed conflict, which would invariably lead to the destruction of the regime in Pyongyang. Sebastian Gorka, a favored spokesman for President Donald Trump on national security issues, told Fox & Friends, "Nobody in the world, especially not North Korea, comes close to challenging our military capabilities, whether they're conventional, whether they're nuclear or whether they're special forces."
3. Likelihood of war extremely low: "In reality, the likelihood of war is extremely low because neither side wants to go to war, Samore says.
"We're hearing a lot of bellicose threats and colorful saber rattling," he says, "but I don't think the risk of war is high."
Trump Has Alternative Military Options for North Korea
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
Bellicose rhetoric on both sides of the Pacific following new revelations about Pyongyang's nuclear program has stirred up concern that the U.S. and North Korea could lead to war, perhaps even nuclear strikes.
However, the U.S. has other covert plans already in place that could weaken North Korea's nuclear stance, according to multiple current and former officials who spoke with U.S. News.
The military's most elite special operations forces have for decades trained to prevent a nuclear catastrophe, from managing the threat of a "dirty bomb" smuggled within the U.S. to infiltrating a foreign country's nuclear facilities and dismantling its weapons. These abilities were a central priority of the Army's Delta Force and the Navy's SEAL Team 6 during the 1990s and have remained a critical mission, sources say, as foreign nuclear powers, particularly North Korea, advance their arms technologies.
Offensive cyberweapons developed during the Obama administration also reportedly allow for the U.S. to interfere with the construction and development of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missiles, creating undetectable flaws that may have contributed to some of the Hermit Kingdom's launch mishaps. These tools can also reportedly interfere in North Korea's ability to launch and steer missiles, potentially rendering them useless.
That the U.S. has invested in these capabilities since the end of the Cold War highlights the decades-old concern about a rogue actor gaining access to nuclear weapons and, officials say, serves only as an option of last resort. American war planners and intelligence officers wryly refer to North Korea as "The Land of Lousy Options," a place where there are no simple answers to existential threats, and home to a culture so tightly controlled that the U.S intelligence community still knows relatively little about its weapons programs and how its central government makes decisions.
"The opaque nature of the regime makes some of these tools a little bit more attractive. You throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks," says a former intelligence official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. "It's an additional layer of protection, potentially, but they're certainly not foolproof."
Those familiar with the U.S. approach to these problems agree that the U.S. has few credible pre-emptive options, including these tools.
"You could not go to the president and present him with a plan that would give him confidence that you could destroy North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles before they could be used using all technologies and techniques available," says Gary Samore, who served as former President Barack Obama's coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction and later as an adviser to the Department of Energy. Samore, currently executive director for research at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, adds, "They've taken precautions. They fear a pre-emptive attack, so naturally they've protected themselves."
That hasn't stopped special operations units like Delta Force and SEAL Team 6, part of the shadowy Joint Special Operations Command, from developing ways, in theory, to sabotage North Korea's ICBMs before the country can engage the U.S. in a nuclear war.
"The short answer is yes, it can be done," a former special operations commander with insight into these kinds of missions says. "But the logistics can be complicated."
U.S. commandos have, in fact, on multiple occasions prepared to carry out a real-world mission before it was canceled in the final hours. The commander declined to say for which countries they were preparing.
These units have divided up parts of the globe in which they would operate, including the Washington, D.C., area known as the "national capital region," and they frequently partner with others from agencies like the U.S. Department of Energy who provide experts in a particular technology or skill, like bomb disposal.
In training, they've successfully breached in 30 minutes the kinds of doors that would protect a foreign nuclear facility and also specialized in how to identify nuclear weapons and render them inoperative.
Complications could arise quickly, however. North Korea has multiple weapons sites and in recent months has been able to move its long-range missiles on mobile platforms instead of being limited to fixed facilities. A successful sabotage mission would rely on being able to neutralize multiple launch sites at once.
Such a mission would also require a larger force of highly trained troops, like the U.S. Army Rangers for example, to protect the infiltrating team from local soldiers who would respond to any tripped alarms. Adding further complication is the risk of nuclear contamination, which might prevent the American forces from extracting themselves and returning safely to whatever craft brought them to the region.
"It's a tool, but it's not the only tool," the commander says.
The New York Times first reported in March that the Trump administration had inherited from Obama highly advanced cyberweapons that can meddle with North Korea's ability to launch a nuclear ICBM successfully. Administration sources confirmed to U.S. News that the White House saw these as "an insurance policy."
"Let's go and disrupt these programs from the counterproliferation perspective to the best that we can," the cybersecurity expert said at the time. "It's a viable way to disrupt the capability development inside North Korea."
Changing one measurement on one schematic, for example, could cause an entire missile system to malfunction. Hacking into the missile system itself could also disrupt actually arming and launching of the weapon.
Ultimately, these options, along with conventional nuclear deterrence and missile shields, contribute to the U.S. belief that it can prevent North Korea from beginning any kind of armed conflict, which would invariably lead to the destruction of the regime in Pyongyang. Sebastian Gorka, a favored spokesman for President Donald Trump on national security issues, told Fox & Friends, "Nobody in the world, especially not North Korea, comes close to challenging our military capabilities, whether they're conventional, whether they're nuclear or whether they're special forces."
In reality, the likelihood of war is extremely low because neither side wants to go to war, Samore says.
"We're hearing a lot of bellicose threats and colorful saber rattling," he says, "but I don't think the risk of war is high."
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