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U.S.-Korean Defense Leaders Announce Exercise Invincible Spirit

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Ubiquitin, Jul 20, 2010.

  1. Ubiquitin

    Ubiquitin Member
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    It would seem this is just as much a message to the PRC as it is to the DPRK. The Cheonan might be the Franz Ferdinand of our century.

    http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=60074

    U.S.-Korean Defense Leaders Announce Exercise Invincible Spirit

    By Jim Garamone
    American Forces Press Service
    SEOUL, South Korea, July 20, 2010 – The United States and South Korea today announced a series of military exercises designed to send a strong, clear message to North Korea to stop its provocative and warlike acts.
    U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Republic of Korea National Defense Minister Kim Tae-young released a joint statement on the exercises following meetings here.
    The first in a series is a combined maritime and air readiness exercise named Invincible Spirit. About 8,000 U.S. and ROK military personnel will participate. The exercise is in response to the unprovoked attack on and sinking of the South Korean frigate Cheonan off the west coast of the peninsula. Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed in the North Korean torpedo attack on the vessel.
    “This is the first in a series of ROK-U.S. combined naval exercises that will occur in both the East and West Seas,” the two defense ministers said in their joint statement. To Americans, the East Sea is the Yellow Sea and the West Sea is the Sea of Japan.
    “These defensive, combined exercises are designed to send a clear message to North Korea that its aggressive behavior must stop, and that we are committed to together enhancing our combined defensive capabilities,” the statement continued.
    Navy Adm. Robert F. Willard, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, put the exercises in context for reporters traveling with Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Willard said the exercise will begin at the conclusion of the Two-plus-Two meetings between the U.S. and Korean ministers of defense and foreign affairs.
    Willard called the attack on the Cheonan “heinous.”
    The exercise does include the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group and ROK Navy ships. Aircraft will come from the U.S. Seventh Air Force, the George Washington’s Air Wing, the ROK air force and ROK anti-submarine aircraft. The exercise will include F-22 Raptor aircraft training for the first time in the theater, he said.
    “In all, over a hundred aircraft will fly in the event,” Willard said. “The exercise will include a variety of training opportunites – flight operations from the carrier, there will be an air defense exercise, strike exercises and opportunities for passing exercises.”
    “Anti-submarine warfare is also included in the exercise with both ROK and U.S. Navy ships and P-3 aircraft participating,” he said.
    At the end of the exercise, there will be a counter special forces exercise. “These occur with some frequency in both the East and West Seas, conducted by the ROK and U.S. Navy,” Willard said.
    Invincible Spirit is a large-scale exercise, the admiral stressed. “This is intended to send a signal to North Korea with regard to what has occurred post-Cheonan, and it is intended to signal to the region the resolve of this alliance and our commitment to one another and the scope and scale of our ability to operate together,” he said.
    The exercise is part of a continuum of exercises that the United States and the Republic of Korea hold. The end of Invincible Spirit will coincide with the start of exercise Freedom’s Guardian, Willard said.
    The admiral said the exercises can be adjusted if North Korea agrees to stop future provocations.
    Future exercises may be in the West Sea, Willard said. The West Sea is an international waterway, and the United States is perfectly within its rights to exercise in that body of water. Willard said he is not concerned about China’s feeling about U.S.-ROK naval exercises in that area.
    “If I have a concern vis-a-vie China it’s that China exert itself to influence Pyongyang to see that incidents like Cheonan don’t occur in the future,” he said.
    Deterring North Korea is problematic, said Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell. “This is what makes North Korea so challenging and at times, so confounding: how do you gain leverage with a regime that doesn’t care how it is viewed by the rest of world, and doesn’t care how it treats its own people?” Morrell said. “At the same time, none of us wants to fight another war on the peninsula and clearly none of us – certainly the Chinese – are interested in instability on the peninsula. So, this all combines to make this a challenge.”
     
  2. Major

    Major Member

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    I've always found these training exercises amusing.

    North Korea: we blow up your sub.
    US/South Korea: we're going to do a training exercise. that'll teach you to stop!
     
  3. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    Well, it was more like...

    North Korea: We blow up your warship.

    US/South Korea: We do massive exercises that always freak you out, because if we went any further, we would have war break out on the peninsula.

    And it's all for your entertainment! :p
     
  4. DonkeyMagic

    DonkeyMagic Member
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    hey North Korean...check this out. You don't want none!

    [​IMG]
     
  5. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    Training exercises can be used as cover for mobilization. I don't believe we are going to launch an attack on NK but the intent is clearly to make NK worry that we might.
     
  6. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Member
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  7. Major

    Major Member

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    Certainly true - but if you and I know that we're not going to attack NK, they know that too. At the end of the day, NK got away with their attack. We'll make some sabre-rattling noise, but there won't be any real consequences for NK.

    (I'm not making a judgment value on whether we should do anything else - I'm just pointing it out.)
     
  8. DaDakota

    DaDakota Balance wins
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    Why not just tell North Korea to back the **** down or we will blow them to kingdom come?

    DD
     
  9. AroundTheWorld

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    Well, I certainly (selfishly) hope that no war breaks out in August, as I will be there.
     
  10. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    Be careful!

    [​IMG]
     
  11. da_juice

    da_juice Member

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    Unless you're in the North, you should be fine. I doubt the Northern army could make serious inroads on the South this time, since they're not backed by China or Russia but South Korea is still backed by us. It's funny that we talk about the war because the korean war is still technically going on. We sgined a cease-fire but never a treaty, technically Korea is still in a civil war.
     
  12. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Member

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    Can't NK shell the hell out of Seoul from installations they have near the border?
     
  13. HayesStreet

    HayesStreet Member

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    Maybe. I saw this but can't remember the link:


    "Six B-2s each armed with 80 500-lb JDAMs sequentially launch from Guam. The strike is coordinated with several divisions of B-1s with 12 JDAMs per aircraft and F-117s with two laser-guided precision-guided weapons per aircraft, taking off from other bases in the region. These strikes would be deconflicted with the launch of more than 300 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the various cruisers and submarines positioned in the Pacific. Six additional B-2s, flying out of their home base in Missouri, time their arrival closely behind – loaded with 24 1,000-lb JDAMs or 16 2,000-lb JDAMs.One thousand targets could be destroyed prior to sunrise. This would prepare the battleground for ground forces to rapidly sweep to the North under a protective close air support umbrella of tactical aircraft from two carrier battle groups and other aircraft and assault helicopters in the South."

    EDIT: gotta love the google machine: http://www.cdi.org/north-korea/north-korea-crisis.pdf
     
    #13 HayesStreet, Jul 20, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 20, 2010
  14. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    I certainly don't have a link for that, but you forgot the converted Trident subs that collectively carry over 500 cruise missiles. Add that to your first strike total.
     
  15. insane man

    insane man Member

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    because we can't really attack unless we have no other choice. they can ruin south korea, possibly cause significant damage to japan, and obviously create massive problems with china, both in terms of humanitarian crisis china would have to deal with and depending on how its feeling regarding hurting us. all of which would create terrible economic problems & require a few hundred thousand troops.

    oh and this is while we're engaged in two significant wars and have a ****ty economy to begin with.
     
  16. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    Exactly. War isn't a PC game.
     
  17. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    They can. The outskirts of Seoul are within sight of the DMZ and it wouldn't be that hard for NK to devastate Seoul within the first hour of war. Also NK has dug many tunnels across the border and already prepositioned resources for a rapid attack and supposedly they have resources already across the border. I've known people who serve in the US brigade at the DMZ and they are often referred to as "the Speedbump" Its acknowledged that they won't be able to stop to a massive NK attack but are just there to slow them down enough to allow US and SK forces to counterattack before NK advances too far. That said Seoul is pretty much toast if NK decides to launch a major attack.
     
  18. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    You and Hayestreet are forgetting that NK has hardened almost all of their facilities and their most vital facilities are buried in mountains.
     
  19. wnes

    wnes Contributing Member

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    In all likelihood, Iran is probably gonna be shocked and awed first before a shot is fired at the Korean Peninsular.
     
    1 person likes this.
  20. slcrocket

    slcrocket Member

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    Don't depress me. :(

    I fear you're right.
     

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