North Korea Armes Forces: News

Isos wrote:What makes you think they are in good conditions? They are just repainted for the picture. No one knows if they can fly.

They could edit pics with photo shop software, no need to paint the actual planes! But why bother, they have nukes & BMs to deliver them- those planes r not that important to showcase & advertise them as airworthy, even if they r not.

I'm not surprized, that North Korea's MiG-23s are still flying. North Korea is functional state, who invest a lot in their military. Don't forget, that NK have common border with Russia. USSR have thousands of MiG-23/27 jets in armament, which was in production in eighties. When they retire them in early nineties, some didn't have 10 years, what means there were a lot of spare parts in warehouses for them. North Korea have no problem to buy large pool of spare parts for their MiGs and parts from canibalized ones in nineties. There weren't many users of MiG-23 around. Russia also made a prototype of modernized multirole MiG-23-98, where they could place new Zhuk radar or modernized Sapfir-23 radar. North Korea could in that time buy technology to upgrade Sapfir-23 radar with Baguet processors to improve their capabilities as well as for MiG-29 as North Korea well cooperate with Russia.

https://thediplomat.com/2018/11/is-north-koreas-mig-29-fleet-growing/

medo wrote:I'm not surprized, that North Korea's MiG-23s are still flying. North Korea is functional state, who invest a lot in their military. Don't forget, that NK have common border with Russia. USSR have thousands of MiG-23/27 jets in armament, which was in production in eighties. When they retire them in early nineties, some didn't have 10 years, what means there were a lot of spare parts in warehouses for them. North Korea have no problem to buy large pool of spare parts for their MiGs and parts from canibalized ones in nineties. There weren't many users of MiG-23 around. Russia also made a prototype of modernized multirole MiG-23-98, where they could place new Zhuk radar or modernized Sapfir-23 radar. North Korea could in that time buy technology to upgrade Sapfir-23 radar with Baguet processors to improve their capabilities as well as for MiG-29 as North Korea well cooperate with Russia.

https://thediplomat.com/2018/11/is-north-koreas-mig-29-fleet-growing/

i quite agree, North Korea like China has shown that it can copy items quite and produce technology of its own and i am sure Russia during the 90's especially wouldnt have held back from supplying mig-23 parts along with mig-21, mig-29. However if they did upgrade their aircraft it would of course be quite limited. I agree though that north korean airforce is pretty weak especially interceptor role the mig-21/J-7 and mig-29 are only aircraft that stand a slight chance and would have depend on using huge numbers over high tech. most of there aircraft are really only useful for ground support role and nothing else. But if there ever was a war its airforce couldnt be ignored but probably wouldnt last long either, missile and chemical weapons and ground forces are the real threat. Ideally Russia could secretly set up mig-29M2 production without massive eyebrow raising or suspicion but anything beyond that like su-30 production in North korea fingers would point to china or russia. If North Korea upgraded its SU-25, and Mi-24, and replaced the rest with Mig-29M2 if would be a massive jump up and become a pretty decent threat.

Interesting analyze about NK "iskander". New missile.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RocketSchiller/status/1125055393141542917

^^^
That monster definately deserves the title of the mother of all MRLS's ...

that new MLRS is a beast i bed S/K are crapping it even with air defence you still dont want to be counting on it to hit these air defence aint 100%.


I was looking at the N/K air force and although its pretty much obsolete it still has its uses. If the west ever tried to do a syria or libya type uprising then the air force would actually be fairly useful. I would imagine the north has made/copied spares as well as bought up any spares it could get its hands on (illegally). Looking at its inventory its hard to tell whats still flying and not and in what numbers but when i was in North Korea a few aircraft was seen flying and some sitting on airstrips looking in decent condition from L-39, Mig-15, to Mig-21/J-7.
In a civil war type uprising (talking aircraft aspect only) the most useful aircraft would likely be the older more basic type aircraft mig-15, mig-17/F-5, mig-19/J-6, Su-7, Q-5/A-5, L-39, along with Su-25 and Mi-24, flying slower than the likes of Mig-21/J-7, Mig-23, Mig-29, they would make better ground attack and CAS/COIN/convoy attack type aircraft. the Il-28/H-5 is also worth a mention although large and fairly slow can carry more ordinance that majority of the others and N/K seem to have a large amount (although condition i dont know). Even Yak-18 have been seen armed.
a quick breakdown as follows:

Su-25- obvious choice for CAS would be interesting in N/K has made any homegrown upgrades
Mi-24- obvious choice for attack heli although N/K only has around 20 or less.
Mi-2- light attack heli could have upgrades missiles
MD-500 (copy) - small, numerous light attack heli copied from USA MD-500 armed with AT-3 sagger.
L-39- proved its uses in Syria cheap to maintain and fly, limited ordinance load.
Q-5/A-5- dedicated ground attack aircraft/CAS, short range, likely in good condition with withdrawal of china's ones in service will likely free up spares for N/K
Su-7- designated ground attack bomber 2x 30mm guns rocket pods, bombs,
Mig-15- small, and armed with 2x 23mm guns and 1x 37mm gun and rocket pods, bombs
Mig-17- (as above)
J-6 (Mig-19) - 3x 30mm guns, bombs rocket pods.
Yak-18 - Lightly armed turboprop fairly slow maybe used for COIN/recce.
IL-28/H-5- medium bomber 2x 23mm guns (in nose) 2x 23mm (rear facing), 3,000kg of bombs, slow fairly large would have to fly high to avoid enemy AA. could be better if they had a similar system as Su-24 SVP/Gefest.

so as you can see a large amount of aircraft for the role of ground attack (and thats not including Mig-21, Mig-23, Mig-29). In fact when you look at the older aircraft the Mig-15, Mig-17, J-6(Mig-19) their 3 guns would prove pretty lethal at straffing runs and add into the mix rocket pods (S-5) and convoys would be in real danger.

of course this is only suitable in civil warfare/uprising scenario, whoever in a direct conflict with S/K & USA the N/k would be destroyed on the ground and any aircraft that did take off wouldn't in the air long. I wont cover N/K strengths in terms of conflict with S/K etc as t would take too long and i have briefly covered it in other posts. But on my visit there i could see why S/K and USA hasnt tried to go to war with N/K it would be a losing battle for S/K and USA.

MLRS have nothing exeptionnal. Any country can make them. Even Serbia is offering a 280km variant with 4 rockets per truck.

North Korean air force is pathetic. I can't figure out why you even think it maight be used for anything. They have low number of totaly outdated jets in service. They will be destroyed on the ground the first hour. In a civil war their primitive comms would be jammed and Stingers would make them eat the ground pretty easily.

I suspect in an event of war NK airforce primarily use would be to identify targets and evaluate damage done by its artillery. Due to small geographical space of engagement

NK tube and barrel artillery serves as a means of delivery ordinance quite well. They dont need expensive fighters to do damage to SK airfields as weapons such as KN-9 or this

monster in coordination with its arsenal of ballistic missiles can bombard SK airfield and other hi value targets. Tube artillery can bombard any SK push into NK and its massive

and hard to die army is there to make it happen.

Basically all NK needs is well suited IADS and I suspect we will see it shortly arousing from Iranian experience.

Isos wrote:MLRS have nothing exeptionnal. Any country can make them. Even Serbia is offering a 280km variant with 4 rockets per truck.

North Korean air force is pathetic. I can't figure out why you even think it maight be used for anything. They have low number of totaly outdated jets in service. They will be destroyed on the ground the first hour. In a civil war their primitive comms would be jammed and Stingers would make them eat the ground pretty easily.

They said the same about Syria and it was still important in keeping them in the conflict. Not as low numbers as u think. Underestimating an enemy is a big mistake. North Korean comms and electronics is not as bad as you think. When I was there guides were buying up their homegrown iPad and selling in China like hot cakes one of the guides showed me one pretty impressive and they said almost as good as the real iPad. Now if they can do that for domestic market what can they do for military means the juche directive military first literally means that. As for stingers how many u seen in Syria and how many in nk service? Syrian terrorist have been getting backing from various countries yet no stingers. My comment if u read it stated in a civil war uprising scenario. L-39 have did reasonably well in Syria those old aircraft are pretty much the same in capability. As for all out war with sk I also answered that.

Viktor wrote:I suspect in an event of war NK airforce primarily use would be to identify targets and evaluate damage done by its artillery. Due to small geographical space of engagement

NK tube and barrel artillery serves as a means of delivery ordinance quite well. They dont need expensive fighters to do damage to SK airfields as weapons such as KN-9 or this

monster in coordination with its arsenal of ballistic missiles can bombard SK airfield and other hi value targets. Tube artillery can bombard any SK push into NK and its massive

and hard to die army is there to make it happen.

Basically all NK needs is well suited IADS and I suspect we will see it shortly arousing from Iranian experience.

Yeah I was covering one aspect within a certain scenario. But on the aspects of artillery yes this a big strength for nk and it's vast bunker and cave systems, reinforced positions, fake structures and it's terrain (80% mountainous) works in its favour. Part of my military service was to study nk ex Soviet countries and having visited as well makes things clearer.

GarryB wrote:To be honest they look a bit like S-400 missiles but with nose fins... used ballisticly and with a 150kg warhead with a range of about 400km but unguided... really makes me wonder what they would use such rockets against... I would expect a mass attack on airfields in Japan and South Korea might be a use but would be horribly inefficient... better off with low flying cruise missiles...

I doubt that these MLRS are such long range attack systems. They look more like regular MLRS with aggregated missiles. Instead of
peppering with many small missiles, these systems send over much larger ones which translates into much more explosive force
at each impact. So these systems appear to be designed to attack occupation troops who are heavily entrenched. Not just
some half trained conscripts like in the Donbass cauldrons.

But then, the question needs to be asked is why would occupation troops have so much time to entrench. So this may be an
offensive system designed to be used in South Korea on hardened targets.

NK really needs to get its nuclear warhead tech to the right level.

A rocket like that destroys a building in Seoul. It's a dissuasive weapon against south korea.

Maybe they have sime sort of simple chinese GPS guidance to achieve less than 100m CEP.

GarryB wrote:For conventional warheads of less than 500kgs a 100m is a miss and would be useless unless you launched enormous numbers and got lucky.

Being a straight ballistic missile Patriots and THAADS would actually be effective more often than not.

They are meant to be launched in salvo so 100m is good. It's area/carpet bombing not precision strikes.

Patriot and thaad would be overwhekmed. North Korea has plenty of other big rockets/missiles.

How many systems do US have in South Korea ? 2 or 3 ?