U.S.-South Korea Military Alliance

sepheronx wrote:South Korean Lawmaker Suggests 'Regime Change' in North 

Quiet a daring thought.

Anyways THAAD is coming to S.Korea.

S Korea, US Discuss THAAD Anti-Ballistic Missile System Deployment Sites

World’s Strongest Attack Helicopter, Apache Guardian, Is In Our Arms



Our army is acquiring the Apache Guardian, AH-64E, which is considered to be the world's best attack helicopter.

On May 26, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced that it was going to deliver 4 Apache Guardians, which are large-sized attack helicopters, to the army on May 27 to greatly contribute to our army’s fighting power.

DAPA claimed that the army can now rapidly deal with local provocations all over the Korean Peninsula by introducing this large-sized attack helicopter as part of our long-term goals. The U.S. Army’s youngest model and the world’s strongest attack helicopter, the Apache Guardian, is capable of day-and-night and all-weather operations, and it is also able to destroy North Korea's armored and mechanized forces in times of emergency.

This is a project that will enhance our rapid reaction power in preparation for North Korea's armored power threats and local provocations. The model was selected in April 2013, and the first delivery was made at the Boeing factory located in Arizona in November of last year. As of early this year, all requisite ammunition, supportive equipment, repair parts, etc. has been transferred.

A total of 30 Apache Guardians are slated to be introduced and their final delivery will be complete by the beginning of next year. The army is planning to cultivate teams of pilots and maintenance crews. They will also feature early operational capabilities based on actual training exercises, which will include real-life firing drills, etc.

THAAD can intercept North Korea Musudan missiles


South Korea is responding to North Korea's recent launches of midrange ballistic missiles, and the solution is increasingly pointing to THAAD, the U.S. anti-missile defense system.

Seoul's Defense Minister Han Min-koo said in a statement issued Friday the deployment of THAAD in South Korea makes it possible to intercept incoming Musudan missiles, local news service News 1 reported.

According to the defense ministry, the anti-missile defense system is capable of destroying midrange missiles at the "last stage."

South Korea and U.S. officials are weighing their options for THAAD and were considering a number of locations on the peninsula for deployment in early June.

Ahn Cheol-soo, the founding co-leader of the minor opposition People's Party, said his party would cooperate with any government initiative to respond to North Korea provocations, according to Yonhap.

"If a budget is needed to shorten the time of development for response technology, in parliament we'll actively cooperate for the sake of national security," Ahn said, in a bid to reassure the South Korean public about steps going forward.

Both Ahn's party and the major opposition party have previously taken a different approach to Seoul's North Korea policy.

The Musudan missile demonstrated a certain degree of technical progress on Wednesday. The second projectile flew for several hundred miles, according to Tokyo's defense ministry.

On Friday, a South Korean military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to News 1 said the North Korean improvements include "grid fins" that were placed at the bottom of the missile.

US Approves $65Mln Sale of Anti-Aircraft Missiles to South Korea

"The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Republic of Korea for SM-2 Block IIIB Standard missiles, containers and support. The estimated cost is $65 million," the release stated.

The South Korean Navy intends to use the missiles to supplement its existing inventory, according to the release."The proposed sale will provide a defensive capability while enhancing interoperability with US and other allied forces," the release noted.

THAAD To Officially Deploy to South Korea


The United States and South Korea have decided together to deploy the US Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) to the Korean Peninsula as North Korea continues to conduct intermediate-range ballistic missile launches.

According to a Pentagon statement released Thursday night, the US and South Korea will deploy THAAD “as a defensive measure to ensure the security of the ROK and its people and to protect alliance military forces from North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile threats.”

ROK is an abbreviation for Republic of Korea often used by the US military for South Korea.

The US and South Korea have been conducting formal discussions regarding the “feasibility” of sending a THAAD battery since early February, according to the Pentagon. The battery will be operated by US Forces Korea, the statement indicated.

A joint US-South Korea working group reviewed THAAD’s military effectiveness in Korea and “is in the final stage of preparing its recommendation” for South Korea’s minister of national defense and US Defense Secretary Ash Carter on the “optimal site” in the country for “the system’s effectiveness and for environmental, health, and safety requirements," the statement read.

The Pentagon took pains to stress that the THAAD system deployed to Korea will be “focused solely on North Korean nuclear and missile threats” and not directed at any other nations.

One of the reasons the decision to deploy THAAD took time was China’s opposition to a THAAD deployment to South Korea. “This is a very sensitive issue for the partners throughout the region," Lt. Gen. David Mann, the commanding general of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, told reporters in March, “especially when you look at South Korea, one of the largest trading partners, China, in the region, and so we don’t minimize the sensitivity of these discussions.”

The Pentagon said South Korea and the US are “working closely to ensure the swift deployment of THAAD” to the peninsula.

Each THAAD unit consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 49 interceptors, a fire control and communications unit, and an AN/TPY-2 radar.

The first THAAD battery — and currently the only deployed system — was set up expediently in Guam several years ago to protect US forces and allies in response to North Korean aggression. That battery appears to be there for the long haul.

And North Korea’s recent missile testing has grown more complex and more concerning. North Korea has recently launched a payload into orbit and appears to be preparing for another test of its Musudan medium-range missile.

According to reports last month, official sources said that North Korea appears to have deployed a Musudan missile — with ranges that cover all of South Korea and Japan but could reach as far as Guam — near its east coast.

The Army will have five operational THAAD units by the end of the year as demand signals for capability growth across multiple regions. The Army still has a requirement for nine batteries but has only funded seven in the five-year defense plan.

Earlier this year Carter said THAAD's arrival on the Korean Peninsula was going to happen, calling it “a necessary thing.”

Despite Mass Protests, South Korea to Deploy Missile Defense Shield

http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160713/1042925330/south-korea-thaad-deployment.html

South Korean navy receives upgraded P-3C Orion

The South Korean navy has taken delivery of the first of eight Lockheed Martin PC-3 Orion aircraft to be upgraded by Korean Air Aerospace Division (KAL-ASD).

The work saw the aircraft receive improved radar, communications, acoustic devices, and other digitized systems, says Seoul’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration in a statement.

The upgrade is aimed at making the eight aircraft more capable at the antisubmarine warfare mission, adds DAPA. Deliveries of the remaining seven aircraft will be concluded in 2017, it adds.

South Korea today is closer to the United States as ally than all the NATO countries except Canada and the United Kingdom.

South Korea friend of Russia and the US at same time... Well this is not possible.

Recently Russia give one condition to Japan about an agreement of the Kurile Islands, and it was just to broke with the US. The condition for South Korea for modern weapon sales would be just the same. And we know this will not happen.

The recovery of the T-80s is just to see not them used against troops of Russia or their allies. Without them, if South Korea wants to spend the same for its replacement will have worse tanks, it South Korea wants tanks of the same level will need to spend more.

I see a rare love in this forum for South Korea, Turkey or Saudi Arabia, which are involved in wars against allies of Russia.

eehnie wrote:

Recently Russia give one condition to Japan about an agreement of the Kurile Islands, and it was just to broke with the US. The condition for South Korea for modern weapon sales would be just the same. And we know this will not happen.

I really hope it doesn't happen, control over the Kuril islands shouldn't be negotiated in the first place. Russia and Japan can still maintain good economic/trade deals despite Japan's annoying claims for the islands, and even if Japan stops trade with Russia, possession of the islands under Russia is still more important. At the minute these territories are handed to Japan expect American bases to sprout there like mushrooms! It's a very bad deal like that of Alaska..,

GarryB wrote:South Korea are currently building an enormous ship yard in Russia that will end up making oil tankers and heavy gas carrier ships and some military vessels up to an including carriers...

They are hardly enemies.

The current SK SAM is based on the S-400 smaller missiles (9M96 and 9M96M).

A lot of the western electronics the Russians had previously imported were South Korean.

If Russia can be friends with SK and NK then I don't see why there would be a problem with SK being friends with Russia and the US.

Sure, the US will whine and moan and bitch but they are hardly going to stop being friends with SK... where else in the region can they base tens of thousands of US soldiers?

The Japs don't want any more.

lol, yes, and Russia will help the reunification of Korea under the rule of South Korea.

Will you say that the US and Russia are "hardly enemies" because of some plant of Chrevrolet in Russia and because the joint spacial work?

Shit cars, but ignoring the part of the spacial program in your quote.... Not surprised...

Your pro-South Korea logic is very rare. This country is itself a big aircraft carrier for the 25000+ US soldiers deployed in the country, that are there against China and against Russia. Habitually you talk very much about the presence of the US in Europe talking about to break nuclear treaties, but surprisingly you seem not disturbed by the presence of the US in South Korea. Your comments are a non-sense.

Kidding me? 25000+ US soldiers in South Korea is not a threat to Russia? Seoul is at 750 Km from Vladivostok...

Also, in a conventional war South Korea has advantage over North Korea (numerically, technologically, economically,..), then the purpose of the of conventional forces of US presence is not against North Korea, is against other more powerful conventional forces in the area.

Then, GarryB, North Korea hater...

It is absurd to think that Russia wants to sale T-90s to South Korea in replacement of the retired T-80s.

China will not concede North Korea to the US and neither will do Russia.

Trade, limited.

The deployment of the US in South Korea is the most important deployment of the US in the continental Asia, and it is between 500 and 1000 Km from Vladivostok. It says all.

eehnie wrote:Kidding me? 25000+ US soldiers in South Korea is not a threat to Russia? Seoul is at 750 Km from Vladivostok...

Well no
These men have no ability to mobilize and deploy anywhere near Russia and in a time-frame of less than a couple of months.

eehnie wrote: This country is itself a big aircraft carrier for the 25000+ US soldiers deployed in the country, that are there against China and against Russia.

Of those 20,000 Army troops I'm pretty sure only about half could be front-line combat troops. It's easier for the US to land a couple of brigades of Marines from Japan or Paratroopers and Strykers from their mainland against Russia, than use any of those less deployable Army soldiers from USFK.

KiloGolf wrote:

eehnie wrote:Kidding me? 25000+ US soldiers in South Korea is not a threat to Russia? Seoul is at 750 Km from Vladivostok...

Well no
These men have no ability to mobilize and deploy anywhere near Russia and in a time-frame of less than a couple of months.

eehnie wrote: This country is itself a big aircraft carrier for the 25000+ US soldiers deployed in the country, that are there against China and against Russia.

Of those 20,000 Army troops I'm pretty sure only about half could be front-line combat troops. It's easier for the US to land a couple of brigades of Marines from Japan or Paratroopers and Strykers from their mainland against Russia, than use any of those less deployable Army soldiers from USFK.

The 25000+ are only the military forces, not civil, the entire structure is bigger. Plus, the infrastructure of the US in South Korea is significantly bigger, because the deployment was between 45000 and 75000 soldiers between 1955 and 1970, was between 34000 and 46000 soldiers between 1971 and 2004, and it was around 325000 soldiers in the time of the active phase of the war. In case of conventional war in Korea, this is not enough, but one of the main goals of this deployment is to open the door to a fast increase of the US troops surely until the levels of the active war in the 1950s.

And all this has been and is between 500 and 1000 Km from Vladivostok.

I would expect about this a reaction in agreement with what I see about the US deployments in East Europe.

You guys are seriously kidding me...

The last what Russia wants is to see T-90s together with this force instead of the T-80s.

South Korea produces it's own domestic tanks now so has no need to buy from anyone.

eehnie wrote:The 25000+ are only the military forces, not civil, the entire structure is bigger. Plus, the infrastructure of the US in South Korea is significantly bigger, because the deployment was between 45000 and 75000 soldiers between 1955 and 1970, was between 34000 and 46000 soldiers between 1971 and 2004, and it was around 325000 soldiers in the time of the active phase of the war. In case of conventional war in Korea, this is not enough, but one of the main goals of this deployment is to open the door to a fast increase of the US troops surely until the levels of the active war in the 1950s.

And all this has been and is between 500 and 1000 Km from Vladivostok.

I would expect about this a reaction in agreement with what I see about the US deployments in East Europe.

You guys are seriously kidding me...

The last what Russia wants is to see T-90s together with this force instead of the T-80s.

The land component of the USFK is not an easily deployable force in its totality (20k), no need to argue about it. Their mission is not to reach the border with Russia or the PRC. They are not a threat for either of these countries, they can't be a threat unless their numbers get boosted to the 100k mark.