STORM2K

This news is breaking now but what I got is that NK planes intercepted a US plane but no fire was exchanged but more details will come soon so stay tuned.

Wonder if the US plane was trying to do a "spy check" on a nuclear facility there... :o

Those would be my thoughts skywatch.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... &printer=1

The US plane was in international waters when the interception happened so apparently the North Koreans where the ones who were in the wrong place but the important thing is that no fire was exchanged but this shows that by far the situation with North Korea is more dangerous than Iraq.

It's fairly obvious that the North Korean's are trying to provoke the US. Hopefully calmer heads will prevail.

I agree Marshall. And I don't think they'll stop with this. One of their fighter jets used its radar in a way that indicated it might attack. Thank God it didn't...this time!

As I said in another thread let's pray for cool heads to prevail over there because if somebody presses the red button I can't imagine what the world would look like if a nuclear war breaks out.

Scary news to awake to while I was resting. I agree that we need to calm down and not get trigger happy. NK is trying to provoke.

Garrett

While it hasn't happened in a while with North Korea, these used to be fairly common intercepts especially during the cold war. Russian and US pilots often played shadow to one another. The use of a targeting radar to "paint" a target is not as bad as actually establishing a "radar lock". This is usually considered the same as firing a missile. From the early reports the Korean Mig may have "painted" the US plane but did not establish a lock. We'll just have to see...

In my opinion NK see's our inaction with Iraq and now see's us as all talk and no action. I am not saying I fear NK or that we should but we need to show them we won't be toyed with . I think by delaying this war with Iraq with or without UN approval, we are not making ourselves look too good. :o More "painting" will follow I fear...LETS ROLL. We need to show the whole of the world we stick behind our guns!!!!!!!


Johnathan

to see what kind of aircraft we were flying and how far off the PDRK coast it was. It was very likely on an ELINT (ELectronic INTelligence) mission and was probably just outside the 12 mile limit. Our goal in Iraq is to prevent Iraq from acquiring Nukes and to get them to destroy their CBW weapons. The PDRK already has nukes and a one million man Army equipped and trained by the Soviets and the PRC. Our goal there is to prevent them from using their nukes and sending their Army south. Our troops in the DMZ would have no better than chance than our troops in the Fulda Gap in the 1970's of stopping an invading force (our forces in Europe in the 70's couldn't have fought their way out of a wet paper sack).

Steve

The reports I've seen said it was an RC-135 aircraft. So far the only position report of the intercept is "over International Waters"

Update....

CNN - The Bush administration plans to protest a weekend incident in which North Korean fighters intercepted a U.S. surveillance plane in international airspace, officials said. U.S. military sources said the Air Force plane was about 150 miles off the Korean peninsula when the Korean planes approached it, at some points coming within 50 feet.

Full story - http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/03/nkorea.intercept/index.html

What are they trying to tell us? Locking on? 50 feet? Sounds a little harassing.

I read a report that the US may start sending fighter escorts with future RC-135 missions in the area. That could get real interesting....

That could get real interesting....

you can say that again

is an ELINT Recon aircraft so it was on an intelligence gathering flight. As far as interception and harrassment of the aircraft is concerned, that's standard procedure-we used to do it ourselves with the Russina Tupolevs that used to fly recon missions off of OUR coasts during the Cold War.

Steve

What's unusual is that haven't intercepted one of our flights in a long time. The fact that they intercepted 150 miles off-shore is a little unusual as well. They are doing their best to provoke an incident and we just have to keep a cool head for now. In the early 60's the North Koreans did shoot down a US recon aircraft with 30 souls lost. Ther recon guys probably wouldn't mind a F-15 escort for the next few missions I bet...

Marshall your bet is good because the pentagon is considering the use of f-15 escorts for those survellance planes.

They knew exactly what they were doing. In fact, they took off from a point off their coast since their range isn't terrific, but this was purposeful and intentional. A taunting tactic. And yes they did Lock on their fire control system. The reconnaisance aircraft was "Rivet Joint" a modified 707 similar to Joint STARS. They don't do a radar swath to look for stuff, but they 'Listen" and gather/monitor transmissions. This is serious stuff here folks. I think it was MF_Dolphin that stated that they have a history of doing this. Their pattern is to give a warning pass, paint or lock on with radar, then break off. But one has to be concerned that the next one they fire. I believe they did this back in the '60s, and their brothers in china crippled our A/C just recently. This tension IMO is far worse than Iraq. They have the capability of inflicting extensive damage and blowing through the south and Japan. Their dictator is a complete lunatic, who has put those who don't worship him into prison camps. These are the people who you hear about that are starving. He's starving those who don't worship him like a God. The scary thing is that when we engage with Iraq the N. Koreans would have a significant opportunity to take action. Frankly the Chinese would not care. Remember they supported the north and the Viet Cong for those of you who aren't old enough. The plot thickens....and yes, we do live in interesting times. Pray hard...Cheers!

I'm not a very religous man Steve but I think I'll take you up on the praying part.