[quote][B]S[/B]EOUL - South Korea's military is declaring it is ready for any provocation from Pyongyang, amid increased activity by North Korean fighter jets.
South Korea's joint chiefs of staff Thursday said it is "closely paying attention to North Korean movements" after a significant number of sorties by North Korean jets near South Korean airspace in the past several weeks.
A spokesman for the joint chiefs would not release specific details about the activity. But sources say the North Korean jets have been making dozens of daily sorties with several approaching what is known as the Tactical Action Line. That is the point between 20 and 50 kilometers north of South Korean airspace. Any aircraft approaching that line compels fighter jets in the South to scramble.
An official at the Defense Ministry, speaking to VOA News on condition he not be named, says none of the North Korean jets entered South Korean airspace. But an hour-long flight Tuesday by a North Korean SU-25 fighter prompted South Korea to dispatch four jets. The fighter, capable of a top speed of 950 kilometers an hour, approached South Korea's Gangwha island, just north of Incheon International Airport, and then spent several minutes over the border city of Kaesong before returning north.
In a South Korean Memorial Day speech at the National Cemetery, President Lee Myung-bak did not directly refer to the previous day's provocative flight but advised Pyongyang to be cautious.
President Lee says South Korea has an impregnable security posture and will safeguard peace on the peninsula by responding to any provocation with strict punishment.
[B]Kim Jong Un's address[/B]
On the same day, 200 kilometers to the North, the new leader in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un, appeared before an audience of thousands of schoolchildren and gave his second public speech since assuming power last year.
Kim says the children "should become young revolutionaries and young vigilantes and dare death" to protect the workers' party.
Earlier this week, the general staff of the North's Korean People's Army threatened to attack conservative media firms in Seoul for perceived insults against the new North Korean leader. Pyongyang warned unless an apology is forthcoming South Korea faces "a merciless sacred war."
Although such belligerent rhetoric is common, some analysts say Pyongyang is demonstrating it is now moving beyond words. They also note recent jamming of satellite navigation signals blamed on North Korea, which affected commercial jets and ships in the South.
[B]Show of loyalty?[/B]
Analysts contend a military provocation might come from the North as part of the process by forces there to demonstrate loyalty to Kim and show he is as capable and tough as his late father and grandfather, the repressive country's only other leaders.
A senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, Park Dae-kwang, says the increased fighter jet flights are related to this.
Park says the sorties approaching the Tactical Action Line appear linked to recent threatening rhetoric from Pyongyang. But he says North Korea's air force is severely constrained by fuel shortages.
Although North Korea has long been able to claim a much larger-sized air force than South Korea's, analysts note that - with the exception of several MiG-29's - its planes are old, they lack advanced weapons and their pilots do not get adequate training.
South Korea has more than 500 fighter jets, most of them American-made.
South Korea also enjoys the advantage of the presence of the U.S. 7th Air Force. Its main combat assets are the F-16 and A-10 squadrons of the forward-deployed 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base and advanced F-16s at Kunsan Air Base.[/quote]
[URL]http://www.voanews.com/content/south-korea-closely-watching-north-air-force-sorties/1204395.html[/URL]
So they are checking one plane out then?
[QUOTE=Civil;36232898]So they are checking one plane out then?[/QUOTE]
No no you've got it wrong. They have a sizeable airforce, it's just comprised of outdated MIG's and they only have an hour or two worth of fuel. All the South would have to do in an air war is fly around till they run out of fuel :v:
So when's the fireworks
I wonder how well that bunch of old soviet crap would stand up to SK's airforce. Probably like shooting fish in a barrel.
Slow, old fish with no teeth :v:
[QUOTE=MendozaMan;36233018]I wonder how well that bunch of old soviet crap would stand up to SK's airforce. Probably like shooting fish in a barrel.
Slow, old fish with no teeth :v:[/QUOTE]
Weren't Soviet helicopters close to ours today with the exception of targeting?
SU-25's and MIG-29's, sure. If they can even get off the ground, that is if they can even get close to any of SK's jets before getting shot the feck down by a high-tech air-to-air missile.
[editline]7th June 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Hidole555;36233036]Weren't Soviet helicopters close to ours today with the exception of targeting?[/QUOTE]
I'm talking about the fast-moving MiG's, the ones that have a tendency to violently explode when hit by anything at all.
[QUOTE=MendozaMan;36233045]SU-25's and MIG-29's, sure. If they can even get off the ground, that is if they can even get close to any of SK's jets before getting shot the feck down by a high-tech air-to-air missile.
[editline]7th June 2012[/editline]
I'm talking about the fast-moving MiG's, the ones that have a tendency to violently explode when hit by anything at all.[/QUOTE]
Sounds like a bad Michael Bay film.
[QUOTE=Hidole555;36233036]Weren't Soviet helicopters close to ours today with the exception of targeting?[/QUOTE]
I also doubt that NK has a bunch of top of the line Black Sharks sitting in the Great Leader garage.
Remember, the stuff that they got back then were all soviet E-versions, or exports. Hinds and Mil's, but no really advanced (in today's standards) helicopters.
And we all know how well the E T-72's did in Iraq :v:
I always thought NK had a vast collection of MIG-21's
And we all know how well they work.
[img]http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/054/a/e/Mig_21_by_Oxygino.jpg[/img]
i can't imagine their air force being anywhere near as big or devastating as their ground army. NK has such a fuel shortage for their planes that the average NK pilot only gets around 5 hours or so of air time a year.
So not only do their pilots lack modern weaponry and fuel, they also lack the flight experience of SK's Air Force?
[QUOTE=neigleig;36234119]So not only do their pilots lack modern weaponry and fuel, they also lack the flight experience of SK's Air Force?[/QUOTE]
They hardly get any flight training because they fear the pilots might try to defect.
[QUOTE=Electrocuter;36234164]They hardly get any flight training because they fear the pilots might try to defect.[/QUOTE]
Well it's not like that's never happened before to other countries.
[QUOTE=purvisdavid1;36232922]No no you've got it wrong. They have a sizeable airforce, it's just comprised of outdated MIG's and they only have an hour or two worth of fuel. All the South would have to do in an air war is fly around till they run out of fuel :v:[/QUOTE]
You must not forget that during the Korean War, only Russia provided pilots to NK to fly the MiG jets, and that the Kremlin only provided pilot training to China and North Korea for the MiG-15 model.
They're probably still using the old jets that any modern Air Force can take out easily. :v:
dear god not the north korean air force
[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6030/6005691295_e605c9fe10_z.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Virtanen;36237594]dear god not the north korean air force
[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6030/6005691295_e605c9fe10_z.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
While the joke is true, that's a pretty sick plane.
Their ground force may have numbers, but everyone won't have enough stamina to go on fighting for longer than a few days without serious effects on their combat abilities.
[QUOTE=zombini;36237751]Their ground force may have numbers, but everyone won't have enough stamina to go on fighting for longer than a few days without serious effects on their combat abilities.[/QUOTE]
If the North was going to do anything, it would be to attack the front en mass, while bombing Seoul to bits, advancing as quick as possible to take it. That would probably take several hours. After that, they would get royally screwed from cruise missiles and planes, raining death down on the NK troops. If they don't give up at that point, the US will pound them all the way to Pyongyang.
There is no way for the North to win. They had comparable equipment and training when the Korean war started and they nearly won it. The technological advance in between now and then is so big, that they can not hope to win in any sense of the word.
[QUOTE=s3xt0y;36233833]i can't imagine their air force being anywhere near as big or devastating as their ground army. NK has such a fuel shortage for their planes that the average NK pilot only gets around 5 hours or so of air time a year.[/QUOTE]
A ground force is completely defenseless without air superiority. one helicopter/jet can take down rows of ground forces unless they have AA (which is probably also outdated to shit).
[QUOTE=purvisdavid1;36232922]No no you've got it wrong. They have a sizeable airforce, it's just comprised of outdated MIG's and they only have an hour or two worth of fuel. All the South would have to do in an air war is fly around till they run out of fuel :v:[/QUOTE]
Basically SK could send some cheap ass remote controlled bait planes to make them waste all that fuel :V:
[QUOTE=Virtanen;36237594]dear god not the north korean air force
[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6030/6005691295_e605c9fe10_z.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Dear god not the North Korean Air Force
[IMG]http://img.xcitefun.net/users/2011/01/226888,xcitefun-funny-moments-military-pictures-18.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Marbalo;36233366]Yes, but only Soviet helicopters.
The ones they've exported were always somewhat outdated compared to what was employed in the actual military of the SU at any given time. Hinds and Mi's with crucial upgrades were never exported as far as I know -- since selling top of the line equipment to foreign nations isnt the best of thing.[/QUOTE]
Yeah modern Russian hardware is pretty good, but dated soviet helicopters are going to be pretty useless. To use helicopters effectively, you have to obtain air superiority over the target area, which is almost impossible without excellent fixed wing aircraft to take our your opponent's air superiority capabilities.
[video=youtube;v1oZu_LMK40]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=v1oZu_LMK40[/video]
Official footage of the NK air force, recorded by SK spies.
[editline]7th June 2012[/editline]
Did Garry break the VIDEO tags?
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