N. Korean MiG 19 penetrates S. Korea briefly

[Squawk7777]

S.Korea to Issue Strong Protest Over North Jet

Thu February 20, 2003 12:18 AM ET

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said Thursday it would protest strongly to North Korea after one of Pyongyang's fighter aircraft briefly crossed a maritime border into the South.
The South Korean Defense Ministry said the North Korean MiG-19 fighter was in the South's airspace for just two minutes and was chased back North by South Korean F-5E fighters.

"We will strongly protest against the intrusion after analyzing their intention," a statement from the ministry's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

[Borat]

A taste of things to come no doubt. Very much hope I'm wrong though.

[Few Cloudy]

That's North Korea for you - always pushing the boundaries!

Mind you it pales in comparison to the rocket over Japan a while back...

[N380UA]

Checking the respond(time) of the enemy I'd guess.
Though I seriously wonder what they're trying to accomplish with a Mig 19???

[Basil]

If & only IF it was intentional, why risk valuable equipment?

[ghost-rider]

If & only IF it was intentional, why risk valuable equipment?

Simple - they don't hve the same ethos we (the West) do on the value of equipment and personnel.

The loss of one pilot and Mig19 wouldn't bother them at all. ( after all - they've a few more ! :rolleyes: ) The PR they'd manufacture though would be worth it's weight in gold in their eyes. :*

[newarksmells]

Sounds like asking for trouble. They need to be careful though because they might just get some..

[Squawk7777]

I found some more information about the MiG19 and its variants. North Korea has the J-6, that's a Chinese version of the MiG19.
Development dates back as far as 1953 (!), I guess I should have posted that in the "Aviation History" forum. :rolleyes: Here's some more info on the MiG19 and F/J-6:

MiG-19 FARMER
J-6 / F-6
The MiG-19 Farmer was the first supersonic fighter built in the former USSR. The MiG-19 prototype made its first flight in September 1953 and was placed into production in 1955. It was the Soviet Union's primary fighter during the last half of the 1950's. Possibly as many as 10,000 MiG-19's, in various versions, were built by the Soviet Union, China, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. About 2,000 have been built in the People’s Republic of China. Many other countries used the MiG-19, including Cuba, North Vietnam, North Korea, Iraq, and most of the Warsaw Pact nations. The Soviet Union phased out the MiG-19 in the early 1960s in favor of the more advanced MiG-21. However, the MiG-19 continued to be used by the other nations for many more years.

The F-6 (Jianjiji-6 Fighter aircraft 6) is the Chinese version of the MiG-19, which as of the mid-1990s was still in production in China. The J-6, which began flight tests in 1958, was China's first supersonic jet fighter. The F-6 has six attachment points for external stores (three on each wing). The outboard wing stations can carry a 250 kg bomb. The outboard wing stations can also carry a 760 or 400 liter drop tank or the CAA-1b AAM. The inboard wing stations can carry practice bombs or rocket pods with either 8 x 57mm, 16 x 57mm, or 7 x 90mm rockets.

The aircraft's wings are mid-mounted, swept-back, and tapered with blunt tips. There are wing fences and wide wing roots. There are two turbojet engines mounted inside the body and a single, round air intake in the nose. Note that what appears to be a single air intake is actually separated on the inside with each engine drawing air from its own intake. Two aircraft that have a single air intake with two engines are the Lightning and the G.91Y. There are dual exhausts. The fuselage is long, tube-shaped, and tapers slightly to the blunt nose and widens to the exhausts. There is a bubble canopy well forward on the nose. The tail fin is sharply swept-back and tapered with blunt tips. Flats high-mounted on the fuselage and swept-back with blunt tips

taken from here (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/airdef/mig-19.htm)

[Basil]

Ah, yes, I meant that the 19 wasn't valuable equipment but ref subsequent posts perhaps it's their front-line fighter ;)

[Squawk7777]

Basil - as far as I understand North Korea has a few MiG 29. Don't know how many and if they are able to train them extensively (in regards to flying hours etc.)

Question to all military personnel: Is the armement (high tech missiles etc.) limited to the aircraft type (MiG 19 or J-6)?

[Sorry for the rather dumb question, I am not expert in regard to arms etc.]

[ORAC]

Apart from their older types, they had 15 x MiG-29s (with AA-10). and 35 x Su-25 Frogfoots delivered in the mid-80s. God knows what state they're in by now though.

[steamchicken]

Given the political situation I think this was more like Op. DEMONSTRATE BLOODYMINDEDNESS. Simple really, buzz down to the border, punch the burner, turn back once radar spots the interceptors coming up and back home for tea(if there was any tea), medals and worldwide diplomatic consternation. Demonstrates a refusal to back down without much cost..but for a country that claims to be desperate for fuel, it's surely a waste of Jet A1 or whatever a MiG 19 burns (coal perhaps:D )

[Genghis the Punk]

Squawk,

Regarding the arming of old ac - integration issues aside, it is not massively hard to put state of the art IR guided missiles onto older airframes (though to be fair, the MiG - 19 may be pushing it a bit). With the current generation of high off-boresight IR missiles (ASSRAM and AIM-9X for example), even older ac can become very dangerous foes if thay can get within visual range. That said, whether N Korea can get said missiles is another matter.

[Gen. Bombdabastards]

Seems to me they are just doing what the Argies used to do to us in the early / mid 80's. RAF Phantoms frequently scrambled to intercept Argy a/c approaching the FI protection zone.

I beleive the Iraqi's have also tried it on a number of occasions with the no fly zone.

Fly out to the limit of other country's territory, push the limit slightly. get a reaction and run away before you get your butt kicked.

[SPIT]

Even though it is OLD EQUIPMENT, I bet some S KOREANS had to change their underpants after this incident ??:D :D :=