Posted on 01/10/2007 2:50:09 AM PST by Aussie Dasher
THE United States is sending between 15 and 24 radar-evading Stealth fighters to South Korea this month, the US military said today, amid increasing speculation over a second North Korean nuclear test.
"One squadron of F-117 Nighthawk Stealth fighters will be deployed this month,'' said Kim Yong-kyu, a spokesman for US Forces Korea. One squadron of fighters has between 15 and 24 aircraft.
"This is a routine deployment,'' he said, adding that the move had nothing to do with any particular threat.
He declined to give further details, including where and for how long the fighters will be deployed. Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, where the fighters are based, said in a web posting that the fighters left earlier this week for South Korea.
General B B Bell, the commander of US forces in South Korea, said yesterday he believed North Korea would test a second nuclear bomb at some time in the future, following its first test on October 9.
"Should North Korea attack the South in any way, the combined forces command will respond and we will win quickly and we will win decisively,'' he said.
General Bell heads 29,000 US troops in the peninsula, supporting South Korea's 680,000-strong armed forces against any attack from the North's 1.1 million military.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
..we can expect the "nut job" to do his routine scurrying around the palace and issue threats, but this time he has to be wondering......
Doogle
All the services seem to be shifting towards WESPAC. I guess the Chinese give our forces better "training opportunities" like the Soviets did. /s
"Send whatever is needed to give the guy with the weirdo haircut the message!"
Send Taiwan a fully loaded Ohio Class sub.
Let the Chinese deal with Chiahead.
It can't be all that stealth-y if the Aussies know about it.
..there it is Kim..fire fire...no no over there...fire fire...Kim...stop peeing and pay attention...FIRE...
Hope those F-117's are loaded up with deadly Chia-seeking JDAM's.
;)
My brother's son-in-law - who is an Air Force F117 refueling specialist - was redeployed from a base in Turkey to Okinawa about two months ago.
At the time, I thought it was strange, and wondered if he wasn't assigned to the F117s any more. I suspect he will be in and out of South Korea on a regular basis.
Here's looking at you North Korea
We send F117s to the ROK every year for a joint exercise. When I was there, I heard on the radio that Kim Jong Il would attack us if they landed. This was on the way back from watching them land. Nothing happened.
Every year, we do this exercise, and every year he bitches about it. Nothing changes.
10 have been designated for "long term storage" (read that how you want), but they are to be kept in a serviceable condition and be able to return to flying status in a short amount of time. The rest are slated to begin transition into "long term storage" with the same provisos as the first 10 starting in '08.
This may change of course due to a few factors, two of which are $$'s to keep them flying and the rate at which HAFB starts getting the new infrastructure $$'s they need for the conversion to F-22's.
The F-117's may eventually be permanently retired, but it costs money to retire an aircraft, especially one that has a lot of classified material on/in it. When you add up the cost to declassify and demilitarize one aircraft and then multiply that by ~ 54 aircraft you run up against some money issues.
The aircraft can't be sent to DM as is because DM doesn't have the ability to secure the fleet. So there is a lot of hand wringing going on right now about what to do with them. Besides, they are still a highly capable/viable aircraft that can do some things the F-22 can't and won't.
Does that answer your question?;-)
Cheers,
SZ
Re: "Does that answer your question?"
You sure did, old sport...
Thanks!
You're welcome.
SZ
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