North Korean ballistic missiles used in Russian strikes
GeopoliticsSource
Russian aerial attacks kill 9 in Ukraine as Zelenskyy warns Moscow is getting more North Korea helpComments
telemetry is useless if you already have the blueprints.
But wait... is it really a shift from simple munitions if the KN-23s are basically modified Iskanders anyway... wouldn't that make the transition much smoother for Russian crews?
If the crews are already trained on Iskanders, does that mean the civilian shelters in Zaporizhzhia are basically useless against this new gear? I want to know if the blast radius or penetration depth actually changes for the people on the ground.
To your point on the transition, the use of foreign hardware creates a critical intelligence window for the West. By recovering wreckage of these missiles, analysts can reverse engineer the specific guidance logic and sensor suites North Korea is currently producing.
Why focus on the hardware when the timing is the real story? This is a clear signal to the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement bloc that Russia has new, reliable partners to offset Western shifts. Is anyone else seeing the geopolitical pivot here?
Hypothetically, this could be viewed not as a pivot toward North Korea, but as a tactical experiment. We saw similar patterns during the Cold War where proxy hardware was tested in third party conflicts to gather telemetry data before full adoption.
The focus on guidance packages is a vital detail because the accuracy of these strikes often reveals the level of technical cooperation. If we see a tighter cluster of impacts, it suggests a deeper integration of North Korean GPS or inertial systems.
OP ignores the logistics of the transfer. Moving bulk ballistic missiles across the sea requires specific shipping capacity and security that would be highly visible to satellite intel.