Gotta See This! WC-135 "Command Phoenix" Takes Off From Japan to Monitor N.Korea Nuke Test (Clip)

NNN TV Network (Japan) today, video stream (1 minute) ^ | 5 October 2006 | NNN TV Network, Japan (in Japanese)

[AmericanInTokyo]

Here is the link, this 300K Windows Media Player video stream from Japan should be up for 12 more hours or so:

http://meta.cdn.yahoo-streaming.jp/cgi-bin/yahoo/news.asx?cid=20061005-00000040-nnn-soci-movie-000&media=wm300k

[AmericanInTokyo]

Both above, and at the link above. In Japanese from Japanese TV a few hours ago. [Open Source Information]

Japanese television reporters standing just outside of Kadena AB in Okinawa today filmed the take off of USAF reconnaissance aircraft bound for areas off North Korea in an effort to monitor any nuclear test or fallout from such an underground test performed by Kim Jong-il's regime.

The aircraft is a WC135, otherwise alloted the designation of "Constant Phoenix".

Go boys (and girls), go!

See "TigerLikesRooster" other FR posts today for further details and additional discussion on this situation.

[AmericanInTokyo]

TigerLikesRooster

A 'with professional respect'-filled "bump" to you!

[hsalaw]

It's really nice to know there are some still interested in protecting us rather than spending all their time yammering about a gay congressman's stupid IM and e-mail junk.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Will try to post more videos. It is ratcheting up now. This will knock Foley clearly off the papers in a few days. Just watch.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Here is a South Korean story version just a few hours ago (footage taken from Japanese network NHK). Just click right below the photo of the aircraft to see the short video stream:

http://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0104_200610051927275891

[AmericanInTokyo]

[Buck W.]

Looks like it's built on a 707 airframe, like the KC-135. They're getting old!

[ASOC]

Cool. Not exactly "me and my RC" but close enough. Hope they have some kind of armed escort.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WC-135 for a bit more on the bird and program history.

[AmericanInTokyo]

It made it off the runway in a light rain, though.

Hope they packed plenty of sandwiches and iPOd tunes.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Rivet Joint (and probably Cobra Ball) are also up, according to Japanese news sources today.....

[hsalaw]

Funny looking nose. Is that where the surveillance and sensing equipment is located? Do they just gather the info or do they analyze it while in the air?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Here is the threat from North Korea. They want something from us. Otherwise, they are going to carry out the test it would now seem:

[AmericanInTokyo]

This may foul up the formatting here, but here goes nothing....

[Spruce]

My daughter taking "weather readings". She rides in the RC-135 out of Okinawa.

[ASOC]

The Ball a/c is used for missile monitoring IIRC from older AF Times articles.

RC-135 would make sense.

I wonder if KIJ received the go-ahead from his masters in Peking?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Thanks for the OPSEC in blocking those patches.

:-) I think that thing holds 33 crew.

Best regards,

[AmericanInTokyo]

He's basically flipping them off and going ahead anyway.

[Bean Counter]

As I understand it, this technology is capable of picking up emissions from fissionable material from some distance. If NK is really preparing a test, it is going to be almost impossible to completely conceal it. God be with our folks as they fly these missions.

The question remains: What is the World prepared to do if North Korea tests a nuclear weapon?? I really don't believe there is anything we can do, short of a pre-emptive strike, to prevent such a test.

I'm hearing the rumblings about imposing a complete Naval Blockade on the North if they do test. Since we've pretty much shut donw the banks that Kim was using to distribute counterfiet US currency, what passes for an economy over there is even worse than usual, with winter coming on fast. If we shut down what little ocean-going commerce there is in North Korea, the whole country will be in dire shape in a very short time.

Lets keep in mind that several million South Koreans live about 30 miles south of the DMZ in Seoul, so the risk here is very real.

The other consequence of a North Korean nuclear test will also likely be that Japan renounces it's 50 year old constitutional pledge against armed forces, and might very well develop a nuclear arsenal of its very own. That alone ought to demonstrate just how serious this issue is.

And yah. This all trumps the Foley fiasco by several degrees of magnitude...

[Alas Babylon!]

Another "Clinton Legacy" for George W. Bush to deal with?

I hope Chris Wallace gets to ask Clinton about this!

[AmericanInTokyo]

japan will take counter measures. they wont (initially) be so public about it