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\u201cNASIC not only analyzes what weapons an enemy has, but what weapons it is seeking to acquire, when those weapons will become available, and how they might be used.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turner, a member of both the House armed services and intelligence committees, said lawmakers understand the work NASIC does has grown in importance as the nation faces increasingly complex threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy continuing to bring other top congressional leaders . to Wright-Patt to see firsthand the important work done here, I am better able to advocate for Wright-Patt funding in Washington,\u201d he said in a statement that also credited his advocacy for congressional dollars to build a recent NASIC expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NASIC marks its 100th anniversary in Dayton this year, tracing its history to the Army\u2019s old McCook Field in Dayton where engineers took apart foreign airplanes in World War I to learn the secrets they held. Since then, the predecessors of the agency and NASIC itself has dissected Russian-built MiG fighter jets and air-to-air missiles, among other bounty, and once lead the Project Blue Book investigation into reports of UFOs in the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North Korea, which has threatened a nuclear strike against the U.S. if the communist regime is attacked, has had a series of escalating missile and nuclear tests that have rattled neighboring U.S. allies Japan and South Korea and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNorth Korea is a very tough problem set for us to analyze because it\u2019s so insular and so we only get to see their advancements when they test,\u201d said Gary O\u2019Connell, a retired NASIC chief scientist. \u201cIt\u2019s getting predictive as possible against a country like that, trying to find out how far they\u2019ve gotten before they actually launch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most difficult is trying to determine a nuclear-armed North Korea\u2019s intentions, he said. NASIC collaborates with other U.S. intelligence agencies to try to find that answer, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe biggest (nuclear arsenal) is definitely Russia simply in terms of numbers and destructive capability, but North Korea is probably the most unpredictable,\u201d O\u2019Connell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Defense Intelligence Agency assesses an adversary\u2019s nuclear warhead threat, while NASIC analyzes a foreign adversary\u2019s missiles with a range over 1,000 kilometers, he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnderstanding precisely what capabilities North Korea has could be crucial to the survival of millions of people in the U.S. and allied states,\u201d said Thompson, a former deputy director of the security studies program at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t enough to know that the North Koreans are testing long-range missiles,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to know whether they have nuclear warheads that might be carried on the missiles, what the explosive yield is, how accurately the warheads can be delivered, and whether they can survive fiery reentry into the Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. has an array of arcane systems for collecting such technical intelligence, Thompson said, but added NASIC has to apply experience and expertise to the information to figure out precisely what it means for America\u2019s security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In June, NASIC publicly issued a \u201cBallistic and Cruise Missile Threat\u201d report reviewing global threats. The analysis, put together with the Defense Intelligence Ballistic Missile Analysis Committee, noted North Korea had launched the Taepo Dong-2 space rocket that carried a satellite into orbit in December 2012 and February 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If configured as an ICBM, it could reach the United States,\u201d the report said, adding the country had \u201cunveiled road mobile ICBMs,\u201d and was developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles, among a range of short- and long-range weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe pace of North Korea\u2019s ballistic missile flight tests have increased dramatically in recent years,\u201d NASIC experts reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In July, North Korea launched two Hwasong-14 ballistic missiles raising new alarms about the reclusive country\u2019s capabilities after the NASIC report was released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Based on those flight tests, three independent researchers however concluded the Hwasong-14 was not currently a nuclear threat to the U.S. lower 48 states, but a \u201ccarefully choreographed deception by North Korea to create a false impression\u201d it was a threat to the continental United States, said their report, published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in August and also reported in Newsweek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researchers\u2019 conclusions also raised doubts the missile could strike Anchorage, Alaska with a nuclear bomb. But they noted North Korea was advancing its skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some questions remained unanswered, said Theodore A. Postol, one of the researchers. He is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor emeritus of science, technology and national security and a former scientific adviser to the chief of naval operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the unknown issues: Could North Korea build a lightweight nuclear weapon that a rocket could carry as a payload; could a warhead survive the gravitational forces of a trip through space and the fiery re-entry through the atmosphere; and how accurately could the weapon strike, Postol said in an interview with this newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would basically say that they probably do not have a nuclear capability against the United States at this time,\u201d the rocket expert said. \u201d. I\u2019m making what I think I could claim is a highly informed guess. But it is a guess and to be absolutely transparent, I have guessed wrong about these guys in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an email, he added it was \u201cextremely unlikely\u201d North Korea has built a miniaturized warhead. \u201cHowever, to be absolutely transparent, nobody – including the US intelligence community – knows how far along North Korea has advanced in the miniaturization technology and ruggedizing of warheads,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States has pushed to increase spending on anti-ballistic missile technology in the wake of North Korean tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The expansion of the Foreign Materiels Exploitation labs bode well for NASIC\u2019s future at Wright-Patterson, Michael Gessel, Dayton Development Coalition vice president of federal programs in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the foreseeable future, that work is soundly planted at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NASIC collaborates with MSIC, which analyzes ballistic missiles with a range under 1,000 kilometers and surface-to-air missiles, Larkin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know where the lines are drawn between our missions but together is where we do our best work to answer those key intelligence questions for our customers and help defend the nation,\u201d Larkin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Information from: Dayton Daily News, http:\/\/www.daytondailynews.com<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
When North Korea launches a ballistic missile over the Pacific, the United States top leaders turn to the National Air and Space Intelligence Center based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":65234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":88,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1908],"class_list":["post-58190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"RATQHK4YAFD3DDJJHW3SJXTJDQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2017\/10\/28\/nasic-on-wright-patterson-afb-keeps-tabs-on-threats-to-us\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n