NK MiG-29s intercept US RC-135

[Vympel]

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/st ... story/0001%

N. Korean Jets Intercept U.S. Spy Plane
By ROBERT BURNS

WASHINGTON (AP) - North Korean fighter jets intercepted a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane over the Sea of Japan and one used its radar in a manner that indicated it might attack, U.S. officials said Monday.

Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said it was the first such incident since August 1969 when a North Korean plane shot down a U.S. EC-121 surveillance plane, killing 31 Americans.

The latest incident happened Sunday morning, Korean time, and there was no hostile fire, Davis said.

Four North Korean planes ``shadowed'' the American plane over international waters for about 20 minutes before breaking off, he said.

Two North Korean MiG29 fighters and two other aircraft that Davis said appeared to be MiG23 fighters intercepted the Air Force RC-135S reconnaissance plane, which Davis said was conducting a routine intelligence mission over the Sea of Japan about 150 miles off North Korea's coast.

The closest the fighters came was about 50 feet, Davis said.

He did not know whether there was any communication between the North Korean and American crews.

At one point one of the fighters ``locked on'' to the U.S. plane with its fire-support radar, Davis said. This is an action that would indicate a possible intent to fire, although in this case there was no hostile fire.

The U.S. plane broke off its mission and returned to its home station at Kadena Air Base in Japan, Davis said.

The incident happened amid heightened tensions between the United States and North Korea. The two countries have no formal diplomatic relations, and North Korea frequently complains that joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises are a prelude to a U.S.-led invasion.

The U.S. Air Force regularly flies U-2 spy plane missions to monitor North Korea's military, including its nuclear facilities.

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http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/03/nkorea ... index.html


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration plans to formally protest North Korea's actions during a weekend incident in which four North Korean jet fighters intercepted a U.S. surveillance plane over the Sea of Japan, officials said Monday.

The administration also said the incident could convince China and Russia to be more open to U.S. requests to apply pressure on Pyongyang.

"As they look at the facts of what happened here, it will be hard for Russia and China not to conclude, 'OK, now North Korea has gone too far,'" a senior administration official told CNN.

Tension has been rising on the Korean Peninsula since North Korea disclosed in October that it had renewed efforts to develop nuclear weapons it swore off in a 1994 agreement.

The official said the forum for lodging a formal protest had not been settled on, but that one possible method was to communicate with North Korean diplomats at the United Nations. Japan and South Korea are being consulted on the best approach, that and other officials said.

"There is no question this is a higher-level provocation than what we have been seeing," the senior official said. "This is a type of situation where one miscalculation and people lose their lives, and then there is the risk of some counter-response where more people can lose their lives."

In the incident Sunday, a U.S. Air Force RC-135S surveillance aircraft was intercepted over the Sea of Japan by four armed North Korean MiG fighters, U.S. military sources said.

One of the North Korean fighters locked its acquisition radar onto the RC-135S, a method used by fighter aircraft to locate another plane in the air, a Pentagon official said.

At least two of the planes were MiG-29s. The two other fighters were thought to be MiG-23s.

U.S. military sources said Monday that the Air Force plane was in international airspace about 150 miles [240 kilometers] off the Korean peninsula when the MiGs approached and flew alongside for 20 minutes, at some points coming within 50 feet of the U.S. plane. The Air Force plane returned to its base in Okinawa, Japan, without further incident.

Pentagon officials were trying to interpret the North Koreans' action Monday.

One theory is that North Korea was trying to engage the United States in order to provoke a response, much as China did in April 2001, when one of its fighter jets collided with an American EP-3 spy plane over international waters.

"They saw what the Chinese did with the EP-3," one senior administration official said.

The North Korean incident was "very deliberate," according to that official.

"If they get the U.S. to fire on them, that's 'proof' an invasion is right around the corner," he said.

'Bigger and bigger risks'
Whatever the motivation, U.S. officials agree that the incident shows Pyongyang is taking "bigger and bigger risks."

The RC-135S Cobra Ball aircraft is a modified version of the military C-135S cargo plane, which is based on Boeing's 707 commercial airliner. The aircraft are used to monitor areas where missiles are tested.

Last week, North Korea fired a short-range missile at sea during naval exercises, and Friday, Japanese newspapers reported that Pyongyang had tested a rocket booster for its Taepo Dong ballistic missiles at a launch site on the country's east coast in January.

In 1998, North Korea test-fired a missile that flew over Japan, raising tensions in the region.

Sunday's incident marked the first time in more than 30 years that North Korean aircraft have intercepted a U.S. plane, the sources said.

The previous interception occurred in 1969, when a North Korean fighter shot down a U.S. EC-121 reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing more than 30 U.S. airmen, according to a Pentagon official.

[Sokar]

Ya know , for being a third rate shit hole, the North Koreans have balls as big as church bells......

At one point one of the fighters ``locked on'' to the U.S. plane with its fire-support radar, Davis said. This is an action that would indicate a possible intent to fire, although in this case there was no hostile fire.

For the crew this was probably the longest 20-30 seconds of their lives, RC-135's are just converted DC-10's and lack anything to respond with....nor are they shadowed by fighters of our own.

I really wonder what Kim is up to(Im sure the State Dept. has me beat though...) I really think he keeps hoping that if he rattles the bars hard enough that Bush will fold the same way Clinton would , and give him the money , oil and food, that they are holding out for. Thing is, I don't think its going to work, and I'm fraid that they(the NKs) are going to go to far and re-ignite the war in Korea. Which could be VERY bad as the North does indeed have the bomb and an awful lot of our friends are far to close to Pyongyang for my liking.....

[Enforcer Talen]

hell, things were too peaceful with clinton anyway.

[RedImperator]

Clinton never fucking learned from Neville Chamberlain. Don't appease the Goddamn dictators. Great statesman my ass...

[Pu-239]

Ya know , for being a third rate shit hole, the North Koreans have balls as big as church bells......

At one point one of the fighters ``locked on'' to the U.S. plane with its fire-support radar, Davis said. This is an action that would indicate a possible intent to fire, although in this case there was no hostile fire.

For the crew this was probably the longest 20-30 seconds of their lives, RC-135's are just converted DC-10's and lack anything to respond with....nor are they shadowed by fighters of our own.

I really wonder what Kim is up to(Im sure the State Dept. has me beat though...) I really think he keeps hoping that if he rattles the bars hard enough that Bush will fold the same way Clinton would , and give him the money , oil and food, that they are holding out for. Thing is, I don't think its going to work, and I'm fraid that they(the NKs) are going to go to far and re-ignite the war in Korea. Which could be VERY bad as the North does indeed have the bomb and an awful lot of our friends are far to close to Pyongyang for my liking.....

I thought they were converted Boeing 707s... damn that's old.

[Vertigo1]

Looks like they're trying to provoke us into blowing them off the face of the Earth....

[Sokar]

Clinton never fucking learned from Neville Chamberlain. Don't appease the Goddamn dictators. Great statesman my ass...

Once the long view is in , I think Clinton will be reviled right up there with Chamberlin for causing all the problems of the early 21st Century. Due to his inattention we have world crises afer crises to deal with. He repeatedly conceded to the demands of tin-pot dictators all over the globe and made America look like a weakling. He allowed Rawanda, and did nothing about the pestilence in Africa at a time when co-ordinated world effort could have saved millions of lives, and he tarnished the image of the US Army with debacles and budget cuts that weakened and de-moralized our military just before a time when we will all REALLY need the badasses in green once again......

IMHO Clinton is almost directly responsible for Sept. 11th, has lack of leadership and fortitude, especially in Somailia, when after a few casualties(and in no way do I marginalize the live of thoes soilders, all of whom are icons for what we should want our fighting men to be, but it was only a few) instead of providing an object lesson in fucking with the US of A, he pulled our troops out and humiliated us all across the world! Osama bin Laden has been quoted as saying the the US would do nothing , and we were weak because of our pathetic reaction to casualties in Somalia!

[Sokar]

I thought they were converted Boeing 707s... damn that's old.

I could be wrong....I thought they were DC's.....but I was just going off the top of my head....

[Darth Wong]

Clinton never fucking learned from Neville Chamberlain. Don't appease the Goddamn dictators. Great statesman my ass...

I have noticed an increasing tendency to employ the "Peace in our time" appeasement rhetoric everywhere. How are any of these situations analogous to pre-WW2 Nazism, where a world-leading military organization had demonstrated brutal expansionist tendencies and then acted upon them at the time of Chamberlain's mistake?

[Darth Wong]

Once the long view is in , I think Clinton will be reviled right up there with Chamberlin for causing all the problems of the early 21st Century. Due to his inattention we have world crises afer crises to deal with. He repeatedly conceded to the demands of tin-pot dictators all over the globe and made America look like a weakling. He allowed Rawanda, and did nothing about the pestilence in Africa at a time when co-ordinated world effort could have saved millions of lives, and he tarnished the image of the US Army with debacles and budget cuts that weakened and de-moralized our military just before a time when we will all REALLY need the badasses in green once again......

He did exactly what the majority of the American people wanted him to do. You are using him as a scapegoat for your collective mistake. He is not an admirable man in the sense that his only real principle was to appease the voters, but he also cannot shoulder the blame for these decisions himself. He did what the people wanted.

IMHO Clinton is almost directly responsible for Sept. 11th, has lack of leadership and fortitude, especially in Somailia, when after a few casualties(and in no way do I marginalize the live of thoes soilders, all of whom are icons for what we should want our fighting men to be, but it was only a few) instead of providing an object lesson in fucking with the US of A, he pulled our troops out and humiliated us all across the world! Osama bin Laden has been quoted as saying the the US would do nothing , and we were weak because of our pathetic reaction to casualties in Somalia!

Hindsight is 20/20. At the time, majority public opinion was that we should pull out. Everyone's a fucking retroactive genius when they have the benefit of knowing what would eventually happen.

[Sokar]

Once the long view is in , I think Clinton will be reviled right up there with Chamberlin for causing all the problems of the early 21st Century. Due to his inattention we have world crises afer crises to deal with. He repeatedly conceded to the demands of tin-pot dictators all over the globe and made America look like a weakling. He allowed Rawanda, and did nothing about the pestilence in Africa at a time when co-ordinated world effort could have saved millions of lives, and he tarnished the image of the US Army with debacles and budget cuts that weakened and de-moralized our military just before a time when we will all REALLY need the badasses in green once again......

He did exactly what the majority of the American people wanted him to do. You are using him as a scapegoat for your collective mistake. He is not an admirable man in the sense that his only real principle was to appease the voters, but he also cannot shoulder the blame for these decisions himself. He did what the people wanted.

IMHO Clinton is almost directly responsible for Sept. 11th, has lack of leadership and fortitude, especially in Somailia, when after a few casualties(and in no way do I marginalize the live of thoes soilders, all of whom are icons for what we should want our fighting men to be, but it was only a few) instead of providing an object lesson in fucking with the US of A, he pulled our troops out and humiliated us all across the world! Osama bin Laden has been quoted as saying the the US would do nothing , and we were weak because of our pathetic reaction to casualties in Somalia!

Hindsight is 20/20. At the time, majority public opinion was that we should pull out. Everyone's a fucking retroactive genius when they have the benefit of knowing what would eventually happen.

Oh I know, hindsight is always 20/20 and I'm not intentionaly abrogating the US poulations responsibility in these matters. The fact of the matter is that the American populace is DUMB. I say again DUMB, the job of chief executive has always been to balance the capricious wants of the mob with political reality. Clinton instead took the mobs wants and catered to them rather than temperd them with reason and the forebearance of knowing wht the fuck is really happening. The average American can't even find Somalia on the globe, much less know the why of our involvement. When things went to hell in Mogadishu, and yes we fucked up and got our noses bloody for it, but rather than haveing the fortitude to tell America to wait, and then going back into Mogadishu and 'educating' them as to the error of fucking with us, and planting a size thirteen Marine combat boot on Adid's neck, he listened to the reactionary mobs calls to 'bring the troops home' , and made us look like idiots and cowards. Catering to the mob, which has pen in political vogue for years now , is worthless. Thats one of things that has impressed me about Bush, he's managed to take the wind out of the anti-war movement by doing the one thing no one thought he would do , he ignored them......wonder what would have happened if the gov't had just ignored the Vietnam era protesters early on rather than get all worked up overit....eiiether way Bush is placing the good of the nation over the wants of the mob, and I think we'll all be better off for it in 20 years

[Rubberanvil]

and he tarnished the image of the US Army with debacles and budget cuts that weakened and de-moralized our military just before a time when we will all REALLY need the badasses in green once again......

The U.S. servicemen really do miss their retired comrades as they have to do jobs and plus the jobs 1 to 10 other people would have done.

[Omega-13]

Now the question is, what would happen if the american aircraft was shot down,

[MKSheppard]

Now the question is, what would happen if the american aircraft was shot down,

War.

[Omega-13]

Now the question is, what would happen if the american aircraft was shot down,

War.

Has the US established if the Korean's can reach the west coast yet with their ICBM's, i've heard a lot of yes and no

[MKSheppard]

Has the US established if the Korean's can reach the west coast yet with their ICBM's, i've heard a lot of yes and no

Who gives a fuck about Los Angeles, anyway? Just Hollywood fuckers

[Cpt_Frank]

Now the question is, what would happen if the american aircraft was shot down,

War.

Has the US established if the Korean's can reach the west coast yet with their ICBM's, i've heard a lot of yes and no

They wouldn't use them anyway, at least not at the beginning of the war, maybe when they've almost lost.

[ben]

Has the US established if the Korean's can reach the west coast yet with their ICBM's, i've heard a lot of yes and no

Who gives a fuck about Los Angeles, anyway? Just Hollywood fuckers

Not even funny Shepp i've got family in that area and i live well withn the fall out zone of a LA directed nuke.

[RadiO]

I thought they were converted Boeing 707s... damn that's old.

I could be wrong....I thought they were DC's.....but I was just going off the top of my head....

The 707 is, in a way, an upgraded civil version of the C-135 (because the C-135 and its civil variant, the 720, were designed and flown before the 707).

[Lonestar]

Who gives a fuck about Los Angeles, anyway? Just Hollywood fuckers

Har-har-har. Tell me, I'm curious, were you born with your head that far up your ass, or did you have some surgery for it?

IGNORING the millions of residents of LA (who can't all be "Hollywood Fuckers") we still have major weapons plants, the Lockheed Skunk Works, and oil fields right off the coast. Don't be surpirsed when a shitload of people lose jobs because companies they work with are no longer there.

[phongn]

I thought they were converted Boeing 707s... damn that's old.

I could be wrong....I thought they were DC's.....but I was just going off the top of my head....

The 707 is, in a way, an upgraded civil version of the C-135 (because the C-135 and its civil variant, the 720, were designed and flown before the 707).

Actually, the military version is the 717 (the old one; Boeing redesignated the DC-9 the 717 recently). The 707 and 720 came later.

[Darth Wong]

Who gives a fuck about Los Angeles, anyway? Just Hollywood fuckers

Har-har-har. Tell me, I'm curious, were you born with your head that far up your ass, or did you have some surgery for it?

Just ignore Shep; he's still fighting the Civil War.

[RadiO]

Actually, the military version is the 717 (the old one; Boeing redesignated the DC-9 the 717 recently). The 707 and 720 came later.

Damn, I forgot about that.

[phongn]

Actually, the military version is the 717 (the old one; Boeing redesignated the DC-9 the 717 recently). The 707 and 720 came later.

Damn, I forgot about that.

'Tis okay, it's not very widely known

[Lonestar]

Just ignore Shep; he's still fighting the Civil War.

Met a few people like that in my lifetime. Got kicked outta Gods and Generals for screaming "Traitor!Traitor!" whenever Stonewall Jackson was on screen.