How The U.S. Might Use Air Power To Take Down North Korea

Forbes ^ | April 11, 2017 | Bruce Dorminey

[Fennie]

A massive combination of Tomahawk cruise missiles, air-launched cruise missiles and B-2 stealth bombers would arguably ensure enough firepower to silence North Korean president Kim Jong Un's increasingly bellicose regime. Question is: Would that also be enough to prevent a catastrophic counter-attack against Seoul?

Such surgical strikes are fraught with intangibles, particularly since with its population of some 25 million people, Seoul is only 35 miles from the Korean Peninsula's demilitarized zone (DMZ).

The most likely response would be with either air-launched cruise missiles from B-52s or B-2s, or Tomahawks cruise missiles launched from U.S. warships, Terence Roehrig, professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I., told me.

"Stealthy aircraft (B-2s) dropping precision-guided bombs are also possible, but North Korea has a capable air defense system that would pose some problems," said Roehrig.

[Bull Snipe]

I would also use every Buff in the inventory. Go for broke.

[Cobra64]

Make them blind and crippled. Stealth to take our communications, radar and power plants.

Fuel air vapor, bunker busters and other goodies on air fields, artillery, nuke facilities, launch pads...

[Candor7]

Would that also be enough to prevent a catastrophic counter-attack against Seoul? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Nope. South Korea would have to invade before the last bomb is dropped. Lightning move.

[Chode]

take out all the power generating plants and substations and make the REALLY live in the dark for a few years...

[Col Frank Slade]

Check out NORK TV YouTube yin yang dynasty.

Lots of Commie Propaganda and pictures of Fat Boy.

Creepy music too.

[McGruff]

Many of North Korea’s ballistic missiles are dispersed and kept in hardened facilities in tunnels or mountainsides, says Roehrig.

“And these are only the missiles,” said Roehrig. “North Korea also has thousands of long-range artillery pieces and multiple rocket launcher systems that could also reach Seoul.”

With chemical or biological weapons. This is a problem.

[Vermont Lt]

The problem here is that we have to figure what his generals have to lose. People act in their own self interest. Kim is not the wild card. The NORK military leadership is the wildcard.

[New Jersey Realist]

Wait a minute! Supposedly Trump promised China a better trade deal if they did the heavy lifting.

[The_Republic_Of_Maine]

Fortunately Mad Dog understands war.

[Spiridon]

North Koreans are trained to fight brutally against their enemies and to fight dirty with terrorist bombings, suicide squads etc. etc....

I would suggest based on their actions and Korean War stories I’ve read they could make IS look like the “JV team”.

[Bogie]

In any case, as long as their nuke and ICBM structure is completely destroyed it truly is “mission accomplished.” Unlike anything the Mideast has to offer, North Korea is a direct threat to the United States, under current conditions.

In early 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that although they had not seen the KN-08 tested, they believed North Korea had the ability to put a nuclear weapon on a KN-08, and it was prudent to plan for that threat.[19] The KN-08 theoretically poses a threat to the U.S. mainland, able to deliver a 500–700 kg (1,100–1,500 lb) payload 7,500–9,000 km (4,700–5,600 mi) to the American West Coast. Practically speaking however, its accuracy is likely “barely adequate” to target large cities, mobility would be limited to paved roads, and the system will require 1–2 hours of pre-launch fueling. The KN-08 may achieve anemergency operational status by 2020.[20]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KN-08

[ealgeone]

If the Urchin feels he's backed into a life or death situation he'll take as many with him as possible. Hitler had a similar mentality. In his mindset Germany would be destroyed completely before he would surrender.

Urchin appears to have the same mindset.

This will be a very expensive conflict in terms of human life.

Assuming Russia and China don't supply NK this conflict will take time and a lot of casualties. NK territory is not favorable to the type of warfare the US likes to fight. We like clear targets where we can bring massive firepower to bear.

We don't like grueling infantry type combat which is what this will become. We didn't like it in WWII or the Korean War.

The NK people have been conditioned over 60+ yrs to hate SK and the US. That's gonna be difficult to overcome. Think Japan in WWII.

I have no doubt our military can win the combat phase of this...my question is can our politics handle this?

I think we all know the dims and rinos will jump all over Trump and call for impeachment at the first problem if we fight.

Dims threatened to impeach Bush 41 if Desert Storm didn't go well. NK, if they're smart, will play the liberal media against our efforts.

This won't be a slam bam thank you ma'am event. It's gonna take time and resolve.

[CMSMC]

I don’t remember who the army general in charge of Korea was at the time, but in about 1974 Gerald Ford fired him for making a comment to a reporter that “a land war in Korea will not last three days”. I doubt if the estimates have changed much since then.

[SamAdams76]

I wonder however if the military capabilities of N. Korea are greatly exaggerated. I remember the Gulf War back in 1991 when we were constantly told about how the Iraqi Republican Guard was supposedly the fiercest fighting force in the world and the sixth largest army in the world, or something like that. It was feared that U.S. troops would be massacred by the thousands in this "mother of all battles."

The end result was that our tanks rolled right on through and all those Iraqi soldiers just threw up the white flags. Some of them were even surrendering to CNN crews. The only thing stopping us from rolling into Baghdad virtually unmolested was President Bush's decision to keep Hussein in power.

I'm thinking the same thing might happen in N. Korea. Not that the soldiers are necessarily cowards but that they have no love for their moron dictator and if they see that we are serious about taking him out, they may very quickly throw down their arms and seek asylum.

[Bogie]

A lot has happened since 1953. Their soldiers are fine but their technology is in question. This may be a critical period because aspects of targeting will surely improve with time.

It's the nuke issue.

[Spiridon]

They have acted ruthlessly in the past including several years ago when they suddenly destroyed a South Korean warship with a special torpedo.

They specialize in sudden attacks and terrorism, they have a brutal track record.

To the extent the outside world gets in it probably softens them but this is a society where universal indoctrination is the norm and the outside world is kept as far out as possible.

[Chewbarkah]

Here’s the real plan:
1) China makes it clear to military leaders of NK that the looney Kim regime must go.
2) They arrange a tragic accident or thousand.
3) They rearrange the deck chairs of whatever is left in a pattern China likes.
4) New regime is slightly less troublesome than old regime, for a while.

[The Sons of Liberty]

How The U.S. Might Use Air Power To Take Down North Korea

Anything will be risky. I suspect that the NORKs have chemical weapons and if you don't take out all of their delivery systems, including artillery, in the first wave, then a gas attack on Seoul is likely.

[wrench]

I believe it is undisputed that the NK Army has lots and lots of artillery aimed at SK population centers. The emplacements are such that each one will need a dedicated munition, on target, to disable it.

The only scenario that bypasses huge civilian causalities in the south is one where the local arty commanders stand down.

Is that likely to happen? I have no idea.