Global SITREP B7-16: Blatant Russian and Chinese Aggression Continues; North Korea has Miniaturized Nuclear Warheads

Kim Jong-Un stands behind North Korea's miniaturized nuclear warhead

Update 21 April 2016: The image above is all over the internet. It shows North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un standing behind a North Korean miniaturized nuclear warhead. North Korea made the claim of successful miniaturization of a nuclear device a little over a month ago; this image at the minimum shows the world they at least have a viable design if not a bonafide warhead to put on top of a ballistic missile. 

The miniaturization of a nuclear warhead means that the possessor nation has successfully designed and manufactured a warhead which weighs less than 2200 pounds and has a diameter of 35 inches or less. The warhead imaged above reportedly weighs in at 660 pounds. North Korea is assessed to have manufactured between 8 and 20 of these warheads. 

Question: How easy would it be for North Korea to put a full-scale production prototype of this miniaturized nuclear warhead on an aircraft and covertly fly it to Iran as a "diplomatic pouch" for reverse engineering? Or better yet, how about the digitized machine production specifications loaded on a CD and sent that to Iran.  

Answer: Too easy. Entirely too easy. And probably already a matter of fact.

RC-135 'Combat Sent'

17 April 2016: The day before the original posting of this SITREP a second inherently dangerous incident occurred in northern Europe when a Russian Su-27 'Flanker' combat aircraft intercepted and performed a barrel roll maneuver over a United States Air Force RC-135U 'Combat Sent' (based on the Boeing 739) reconnaissance aircraft.  The RC-135U, assigned to the 55th Wing at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, was flying its mission in international airspace over the Baltic Sea when the incident occurred. A U.S. officer assigned to European Command (EUCOM) described the Russian pilot's maneuver as 'erratic and aggressive,' and a U.S. Navy Captain described it as 'unsafe and unprofessional.' 

The RC-135U Combat Sent is a strategic electronic collections platform whose data is sent directly to the POTUS, SECDEF, Pentagon JCS and European theater field commanders in real-time. There are only two RC-135U Combat Sent aircraft in service with the USAF. 

Russian Su-24M2 'Fencer-D' (video frame capture)

15 April 2016: The above image is a video frame capture of the split-second a Russian Su-24 'Fencer-D' strike aircraft was completing its high-speed strafing run of the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) in international waters of the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, April 12, 2016. 

This image proves beyond any doubt that the subsequent official statements concerning this incident made by the Russian government in Moscow are all bald-faced lies. The Su-24 in this image is within 30 feet of DDG-75.  The aircraft and its crewmen should have been shot down according to United States Navy rules of engagement. The Russian aircraft was clearly in violation of the 1973 agreement between the U.S. and Russia strictly prohibiting this type of maneuver. 

Chinese PLA Cyber Warriors (Photo Credit: AP)

As the expanded title of this SITREP informs, the Chinese are executing assaults against the United States on a daily basis. So testified Vice Admiral (three stars) James D. Syring, commanding officer of the United States Missile Defense Agency (MDA), before the House subcommittee on strategic forces. VAdm. Syring testified that the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army cyber warrirors attacks on American computer networked are of an equivalent threat level as both the North Korean and Iranian ballistic missile programs. 

Quoting Admiral Syring, "I view the [Chinese PLA] cyber threat that I specifically face with MDA and the systems we are fielding on par with any ballistic missile threat that either Iran or North Korea possess...They [the Chinese PLA] are continuing to try and attack my government networks, every day, classified and unclassified." 

Admiral Syring also warned that our enemies risk considerable costs to be borne as a result of their cyberwarfare assaults against our critical Informational Technology (IT) base and classified and unclassified military networks such as those which serve as the backbone of our missile defense capabilities.

More on this from Bill Gertz at the Washington Free Beacon.

Global SITREP C1-15: Brinksmanship as Russia and NATO Edge Closer to Conflict

American RC-135U 'Rivet Joint' ELINT Reconnaissance Aircraft

Update 16 April 2015: The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific (PACOM), Admiral Samuel Locklear, testified before the House Armed Services Committee yesterday that Russia has returned its conventional and nuclear forces to the same posture against the United Sates of America as they maintained during the so-called Cold War. 

What that means in layman's terms is that Russia could launch into a nuclear war against the United States with very little advance warning. In this type of a posture any one of the simulated long-range nuclear cruise missile attacks by Tu-95 Bear bombers or fully modernized Tu-160 Blackjack supersonic bombers flown in the immediate future against targets on the US east and west coasts could turn out to be the real thing. 


In the face of Obama Administration defense cuts (Obama's new found flexibility, no doubt) the ability of the US defenses are suspect at best. Admiral Locklear testified to a most distressing litany of capability shortcomings and problem areas in US military readiness to include: antisubmarine warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance, space systems, battle management, command and control (C2) as well as cyber-warfare, anti-air and anti-missile defenses, aircraft, airlift and fuel.

Details, once again, come from Bill Gertz' Inside The Ring column at The Washington Times.

12 April 2015: It has been revealed by Bill Gertz via the Washington Free Beacon that during the morning of this past Tuesday, 7 April, a Russian Su-27 Flanker intercepted and nearly caused a mid-air collision with an American RC-135 'Rivet Joint' Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) reconnaissance and collections aircraft, code named "Combat Sent," which was flying its mission in international airspace over the Baltic Sea. 

The Russian fighter missed striking the American aircraft by a mere 20 feet in what U.S. officials protested as "unsafe and unprofessional" conduct by the Russian pilot. Gertz suggests that the mission was directly related to ELINT intelligence collection to confirm Russia's recent deployment of short-range Iskander nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad and recently annexed Crimea.

The Gertz article also reveals:

"A report by the European Leadership Network, “Dangerous Brinksmanship: Close Military Encounters Between Russia and the West in 2014,” states that last year NATO aircraft conducted more than 100 intercepts of Russian aircraft, three times the number of intercepts in 2013. A total of 11 encounters were described as being of a serious and “more aggressive or unusually provocative nature, bringing a higher level risk of escalation.”

“These include harassment of reconnaissance planes, close overflights over warships, and Russian ‘mock bombing raid’ missions,” the report said, noting that the intensity and gravity of the incidents coincided with the Russian annexation of Crimea.

“These events add up to a highly disturbing picture of violations of national airspace, emergency scrambles, narrowly avoided mid-air collisions, close encounters at sea, simulated attack runs, and other dangerous actions happening on a regular basis over a very wide geographical area.”"

The continuing litany of Russian military provocations and near-miss incidents in the past several months on land, in the sea or air reads like the opening chapters of a military science novel written by the late author Tom Clancy. The critical difference here is that none of these incidents are fictional with a larger-than-life hero rushing in to save the day. 

Any one of these types of calculated incidents could result in an miscalculated and unforeseen error involving nuclear-armed opposing forces. Not everything that has occurred in world history has an associated Bible prophecy; World War II and the  44-year long Cold War (World War III) being the recent prime examples. However, these wars and current events most assuredly do serve to shape the real-world that will exist as Bible prophecies come to their fulfillment. 

This is the meaning I take from the angel Gabriel's explaining to the prophet Daniel the future course of events, wherein he stated in the 70 Weeks prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27

"The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined."

Ongoing Russian military provocations may just be ramping up toward yet another desolation of war while most of us are preoccupied with our daily lives. This is the specific purpose of the Eschatology Today blog in observing "current world events seen through the clarifying lens of the LORD's inerrant prophetic word."