We had very few boots on the ground in Afghanistan and in an air campaign against NK we are not going to engage in WWII style carpet bombings where we don't care about civilian casualties. Even if we did NK has likely buried enough of its military in mountains to survive bombings. Mountainous terrain benefits NK since air strikes are harder. They are not likely going to engage in an aerial war with the SK. Keep in mind air campaigns aren't full proof and in general take a ground presence. It took almost a month of bombing of Serbia to get end the fighting in the Balkans and NATO forces lost planes even though Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs had no air force. In Afghanistan we mostly relied on the Northern Alliance to defeat Taliban on the ground. Also you still are failing to account for NK infiltrators, missiles and rockets. You seem to have huge amount of overconfidence in SK and US abilities to defeat NK which I am not hearing even from SK and US military in the theater. As other posters noted if this could be considered easy NK would have been defeated awhile ago.
You still cannot compare. It will be the most precise air-ground weapons on the planet. And a whole bunch of them, in minutes. Air strikes are harder when the target can't go anywhere? Advantage air all the way. They will know exactly where the enemy is and they could attack with line of sight weapons from 35K or go with an over the horizon SLAM-ER. You still compare what SK would be doing incorrectly. NATO was supplying air support for ground forces. In IraqII/afgan, ground forces were calling in air strikes. Their role is super limited. This would be an all out blitz of epic proportions. Their massive technological, pilot training advantages, combined with extremely short range is really unthinkable. The only thing remotely close in recent history would be the air campaign in Desert Storm. On the NK side they have much worse planes, AA, radar, and training. On the SK side they have much better proximity, weapons, planes, number of planes, and all the benefits of the lessons learned in Desert Storm and the 22 years since. They consistantly kick ass in Red Flag. F-15Ks are no joke. Probably the best strike fighter in the world. Perhaps because no one wants any fighting (I'll be in Harbin in 2 weeks) and crushing NK like a bug won't help anything long term.
The last couple days have not been good on rockets. First we lost to the Jazz, now this. Hopefully the trend turns around vs. Phoenix tonight.
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Around 100 satellites are lauched into orbit annually. The satellite mightn't have been the significant part.
Except you are forgetting that the most precise air-ground weapons on the planet, a whole bunch of them, haven't even been able to wipe out the Taliban who are far less well equipped than NK. And how well have they performed against hardened targets? Also how good are we at finding targets well hidden in mountains? Keep in mind there wouldn't be much of a debate about bombing Iranian nuclear facilities buried in mountains if it was as easy as you say. Desert storm was fought on a desert plain. A war on the Korean peninsula will largely be fought in mountains. Also NK has a likely far superior radar and AA than an Iraq crippled by sanctions and having come out of fighting another war where they didn't fare well. Also Red Flag is a friendly military exercise designed around air superiority not attacking hardened targets buried in mountains. Once again I have yet to here anyone in the military actual share your optimism and experience would show why. Keep in mind the Korean War never ended and there has been more than enough opportunity to destroy NK if that was possible in the last 60 years. If it was that easy then probably would've been done in the 1990's. have a nice trip to Harbin. I have been there twice and will probably be there again sometime this year.
Well, back to the drawing board NK -- and I mean that literally because they don't have any computers.
Are they all in one spot with AA, artillery, tanks, APC's etc? No they are walking in groups or on a truck with RPG's and machine guns. those are small insignificant targets compared to something that would pose a threat to seoul. It's the difference between shooting fish in a barrel and shooting microorganisms in a barrel. Totally different. If they are hidden in a bunker they aren't shooting at SK. This isn't a research lab, its a group of guys trying to operate 1950's technology above ground. Suppression is achieved, then go on to prioritizing targets you can destroy with immunity because you know if anyone shoots they will be destroyed. Tanks, military bases, mobile AA will all be systematically destroyed. Once they launch or shoot anything they just committed suicide. Totally false, the Iraqi integrated air defense system was really good and they knew how to use it. They were battle hardened and had soviet and american combat tactics. The USA didn't have GPS, over horizon air-ground, or near the radar capability. Not to mention SK will be operating all sorties from their home base. Not a foreign country with compromises in flight paths, and attack windows. Over NK it will be a free for all. Why would they brag about it and WHY would it be done? NK just screams like a brat. They pose no real military threat and SK would never chance pissing off PRC like that. Not to mention going to war with their own people, killing hundreds of thousands of their relatives, throwing the entire region into massive instability, giving Japan reason to demand more weapons-power.
The rest of the world sends all this food because we're afraid of a nuclear country who can't even launch a missile. Unbelievable.
