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The Military United States News

United States Begins Flying Stealth Bombers Over South Korea 567

skade88 writes "The New York Times is reporting that the United States has started flying B-2 stealth bomber runs over South Korea as a show of force to North Korea. The bombers flew 6,500 miles to bomb a South Korean island with mock explosives. Earlier this month the U.S. Military ran mock B-52 bombing runs over the same South Korean island. The U.S. military says it shows that it can execute precision bombing runs at will with little notice needed. The U.S. also reaffirmed their commitment to protecting its allies in the region. The North Koreans have been making threats to turn South Korea into a sea of fire. North Korea has also made threats claiming they will nuke the United States' mainland."
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United States Begins Flying Stealth Bombers Over South Korea

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  • The winner? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28, 2013 @08:04PM (#43308317)

    Can't we just measure Kim Jong-un and Obama's penises and get this whole thing over with already?

    • Re:The winner? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Howitzer86 ( 964585 ) on Thursday March 28, 2013 @08:06PM (#43308329)
      We are responding properly. NK barely has nukes and they are starting the brinksmanship game already. Not responding to that would be a mistake.
    • north korea strikes first = loser north korea

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by murdocj ( 543661 )

      In case you haven't noticed, the USA is at war with North Korea. There was never a peace treaty, and NK has exited the armistice agreement. This has zero to do with dick waving and lots to do with trying to save a lot of lives.

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Thursday March 28, 2013 @08:08PM (#43308341)

    "North Korea has also made threats claiming they will nuke the United States' main land."

    Given the success of their missile program so far, I think China should be more worried than the US - and that's assuming NK is aiming at the US.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If I were North Korea and I just wanted to blow up some Yankees out of spite, I'd say "forget the missile" and try to work out how to get a nuke into a standard intermodal container on a ship bound to a busy port near a population center.

      Slashdot, check me on this. As North Korea, are my nukes powerful enough to do damage to land-based civilians from a boat pulling into harbor in Oakland or New York or Los Angeles? I know detonating a nuke in the NYC harbor was among of the canonical cold-war-turns-hot scen

      • by icebike ( 68054 )

        One does not "pull a boat" into Oalkand or LA without the US already knowing what is on it and where it came from.
        In exchange for fast customs clearance the US clears the vast majority of containers before the ship departs from foreign ports.

        • by Mashiki ( 184564 ) <mashiki.gmail@com> on Thursday March 28, 2013 @09:44PM (#43308883) Homepage

          One does not "pull a boat" into Oalkand or LA without the US already knowing what is on it and where it came from.
          In exchange for fast customs clearance the US clears the vast majority of containers before the ship departs from foreign ports.

          Hahaha...only 8-10% of containers are inspected before departing foreign ports, and roughly the same when they're coming into port in North America, there's just too much of it to search and look it up. The majority of shipping relies on documentation and belief that the shipper is "following the regs and laws."

          • by tftp ( 111690 ) on Thursday March 28, 2013 @10:01PM (#43308977) Homepage

            There is a book [wikipedia.org] where a supervillain delivers nukes into the US mainland inside of new cars. The A/C unit of the car is replaced with a nuke; then ships are filled with those cars and sent to US ports. The cars are perfectly functional, except that the A/C is not working - but who is going to test that? Not the dealerships; they are owned by the said supervillain.

            There is a lot of large machinery that can contain a nuke, or parts of a nuke. You cannot even take that machinery apart. Consider a large electric motor, for example... that is 10' or 20' in diameter. How would customs agents even power it up? it is absolutely impossible. But that mountain of metal can have plenty of space inside to hold contraband. The shipper does not even need to damage the product. If the container is inspected, the agents see what they expect to see - a bulldozer, for example. How would they know that 90% of its fuel tank is already taken by a contraband? How would anyone know what is hermetically welded inside the steel chassis of that machine? You cannot X-ray it; you have to destroy the product - and the agents will do that only if they have specific information.

        • by AK Marc ( 707885 )
          The US inspects less than 1% of ship cargo, and has no idea what's coming in. The US scans manifests, but unless you list it as "secret nuclear weapon", "farm machinery" will get it into port.
          • by icebike ( 68054 )

            They inspect it where its packed so they don't have to inspect it here.
            At the Sony plant, in the dock yards in Korea, Japan, and China. Go down to to the harbor with your binoculars.
            Virtually every container will have a customs band on the door.
            You don't see them inspecting because it was done dockside overseas.

      • by MaskedSlacker ( 911878 ) on Thursday March 28, 2013 @08:39PM (#43308521)

        Depends. I'm not familiar with the geography of Oakland's or New York's harbors, but a low yield nuke in the LA-Long Beach port would probably have (relatively) few immediate casualties. The port itself is huge, and the surrounding area relatively under-populated (compared to other areas of the city). The Hiroshima blast radius was only about 1 mile with little direct structural damage outside that radius. Such a blast at the LA port would still probably kill thousands, but very likely far less than Hiroshima did. They ensuing chaos (we Angelenos LOVE a good riot) would probably kill as many people as the bomb.

        My guess would be that Oakland would be even less severe, and New York would be worse.

    • by mrchew1982 ( 2569335 ) on Thursday March 28, 2013 @08:27PM (#43308447)
      Who do you think the stealth bomber runs are done to impress? CHINA!!! Sure, Kim Jong Un might know about them and use them as propaganda, and it might scare him a little that he can't see the things on radar, but my guess is that we're really trying to impress China. I'm sure that the island is right at the edge of their early warning radar coverage, and if we slip in and drop the payload without raising an alarm (with a bomber that we designed in the 70's no less...) China will sit up and take notice. The Chinese are the only ones in a position to twist Kim's arm hard enough to make him stop acting like a four-year-old, the Chinese are the ones that we are trying to scare.
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

        The Serbians figured out how to detect and shoot down stealth bombers decades ago. There is wreckage of one in a Serbian museum. You can bet that NK has been developing similar systems.

        I don't want to to on about it but America always does this. It assumes its stuff is unbeatable and then quickly discovers it isn't. That's why you keep having trouble with war games and other countries "cheating". Just sayin'.

      • How would this impress China? Do you think they aren't aware of our stealth technology?
      • The Chinese are the only ones in a position to twist Kim's arm hard enough to make him stop acting like a four-year-old, the Chinese are the ones that we are trying to scare.

        I doubt it is about convincing China to influence NK. Its about showing China that all of their territorial claims [google.com] won't go unchallenged. It is also about showing US allies that they should be even better buddies with the US because the US is the only one in the world willing to stand up to China.

        China doesn't even have to respond militarily, a lot of countries in the area have China as their single largest trading partner. Threatening to screw with their economies is major leverage in this "debate."

        NK i

      • by techno-vampire ( 666512 ) on Friday March 29, 2013 @01:30AM (#43309703) Homepage
        (with a bomber that we designed in the 70's no less...)

        Actually, the B-52 [wikipedia.org] entered service in 1955. In fact, I remember watching B-52 raids back in '72, when we were in Tonkin Gulf, and steaming through the clouds of sand, dust and grit that they created. FYI, there's only one thing I've ever heard in my life that sounds the same as a flight of Stratofortresses cutting loose: an earthquake.
    • by v1 ( 525388 ) on Thursday March 28, 2013 @08:30PM (#43308467) Homepage Journal

      they've gotta be getting to the point where even China isn't going to take their crap for much longer. They WERE trying to destabilize the region. NOW they're trying to destabilize the entire world.

      I see NK like some punk little child that goes around trying to start trouble everywhere he can, that always runs back and stands next to his big brother whenever anyone gets fed up with his harassment. This makes him bold beyond common sense, kicking and spitting on the others around him that would otherwise break his face. And Big Brother has got to be getting sick of it by now.

      And just like in the neighborhood, china's the hulk of a big brother that is the only reason any number of others in the neighborhood don't tackle the punk and give him the pounding he so badly needs and deserves.

      So really the big brother is the only one that can effectively fix the problem, by finally picking him up by the hair, shaking vigorously, and screaming "ENOUGH!"

      I just hope that china is even a fifth as annoyed with him as the rest of the world is. Seriously, even China-style communism would do that country a world of good. I'd just love to see Jinping make a trip over to Pyongyang and sit the little dictator/delusional-god in a small chair and discuss making some minor adjustments to how NK is run.

      (contrary to some suggestions in earlier comments, this is not the sort of problem you can ignore till it goes away... the more you ignore little punks like this, the bolder they get. ignore them, and it will never end, it will only continue to escalate)

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Everybody makes export models of weapon systems. You sound like you think it was Soviet only.

        Israel gets the cutting edge stuff. Everybody else? De-rated engines and simplified avionics.

  • And so it BEGINS! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28, 2013 @08:09PM (#43308349)

    please deport the cute NK chicks b4 any war, kthxbye

  • but why is this news for nerds? Looks to me like this will another political debate.
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      That will only if everyone omits verbs.

  • I think they are just trying to posture before they make their demands known.
    1) Season pass to Disney.
    2) Candle lit dinner with Denis Rodman, Mickey Mouse, and Goofy.
    3) Orgy with aforementioned individuals.
    If their demands are met they will give up the nuclear arsenal.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Glorious Leader, I agree on a Single Nuclear Strike on US soil and only single strike, if it targets Jersey Shore.
    Thank you.

  • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Thursday March 28, 2013 @08:38PM (#43308509)
    North Korea is like the baby chihuahua barking at you from across the street, behind a 6 ft chain link fence, and tied to a tree. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.
    • Re:Perfect Analogy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jonnythan ( 79727 ) on Thursday March 28, 2013 @09:04PM (#43308665)

      That's a terrible analogy. North Korea could pretty easily launch a nuclear weapon right into downtown Seoul and kill half a million people while launching a war that will kill a million more.

      They're not a threat to the US mainland, no. But they're a huge threat to South Korea.

  • A farce (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 ) on Thursday March 28, 2013 @09:14PM (#43308717)
    KJ Un has no exit. NK old apparatus (tied with China) certainly doesn't want the country to join the "West" (and having most of the commanders to pay for their crimes), and China certainly doesn't want NK to merge with SK (ie having an immediate neighbor that joins the "West" club). KJ Un studied in Europe, he is far from being stupid, he likes life, good food, women ... in other words he is definitely not as crazy as his late father, KJ Il.
    So what do you think? You really think KJ Un wants a war? Or keep living with that level of UN penalties, poverty, ...? Un wants to end that. And he doesn't have much choice considering the political+geographical situation. He pushes the apparatus to their limits, high pressure, and hopes this will lead to an opening. Either the internal apparatus breaks down, Un seize the opportunity to instill a Gorbachev like coup. Or a (arranged) war will actually take place - just to allow the US and SK to take over (NK army (ie generals) will give up quickly).

    --
    And of course Eric Schmidt was in NK to talk about the Internet...
    • Re:A farce (Score:4, Insightful)

      by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Friday March 29, 2013 @12:57AM (#43309633) Journal

      KJ Un studied in Europe, he is far from being stupid, he likes life, good food, women ... in other words he is definitely not as crazy as his late father...

      If he's that smart and sane, why doesn't he take a look at some of the saner monarchies out there? Like a lot of countries that have communist revolutions, it's essentially a dynasty at this point. He should move towards the British, Jordanian, or Saudi model. Much saner. Wow, you start talking about DPRK and Saudi looks sane and smart by comparison! He even makes the Castro dynasty in Cuba look good.

  • by Culture20 ( 968837 ) on Thursday March 28, 2013 @09:40PM (#43308857)
    If they're stealth bombers, how will the North Koreans notice to get scared?
    • And did we really actually send them? Wouldn't it be enough to simply *say* we sent them? In fact, it might be even better that way, because then they'd be mucking about with their radar for weeks trying to figure out how to detect something that wasn't even there!
    • If they're stealth bombers, how will the North Koreans notice to get scared?

      If Hollywood has taught me anything; one thing I know is that stealth bombers can turn the stealth on and off (entering stealth mode). If true, the US can fly the bomber to a point where they know NK will be watching, have the bomber disappear and then reappear in a different spot. Kind of like a firefly on the radar.

    • If they're stealth bombers, how will the North Koreans notice to get scared?

      Because we have no reason to lie, other than to save gas, and they know it.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday March 29, 2013 @12:47AM (#43309619)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by canadiannomad ( 1745008 ) on Friday March 29, 2013 @01:17AM (#43309673) Homepage

    They’re rioting in Africa
    They’re starving in Spain
    There’re hurricanes in Florida
    And Texas needs rain.

    The whole world is festering with unhappy souls,
    The French hate the Germans,
    The Germans hate the Poles,
    Italians hate Yugoslavs,
    South Africans hate the Dutch,
    (And I don’t like anybody very much!)

    But we can be thankful, and tranquil, and proud
    For Man’s been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud,
    And we know for certain that one lovely day,
    Someone will set the spark off
    And we will all be blown away.

    They’re rioting in Africa,
    There’s strife in Iran.
    What Nature doesn’t do to us
    Will be done by our fellow man.

    -- Sheldon Harnick 1953

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