Posted on 08/19/2017 5:39:05 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
RAF planes could be sent to spy on North Korea's nuclear bases after US asks for help hunting Kim Jong-un's missile stocks
The RAF has been asked to join an international spy operation over the rogue state to pinpoint military bases
BY CHRIS HUGHES
22:21, 10 AUG 2017 UPDATED13:21, 11 AUG 2017
As North Korea ramps up threats to unleash missile strikes , the US has called on Britain to help find Kim Jong-un ’s military bases.
The RAF has been asked to join an international spy operation over the rogue state to pinpoint nuclear sites and artillery batteries.
US military chiefs hope the surveillance mission would help them prepare for a massive strike or for war.
If the Commons backs the request, at least one of Britain’s three Rivet Joint spy planes could fly to a base in Japan within a fortnight.
A source said: “Although a conflict between North Korea and America and their allies is unthinkable, everything that can be done is being done to prepare for that if it happens.
“Western war planners are keen to minimise the death toll and that means a massive stepping-up of intelligence gathering against North Korea.”
(Excerpt) Read more at mirror.co.uk ...
The RJ-135 aircraft are ours—we sold 3 to the Brits but have our own. What is the purpose of using the Brits versus our own?
the poodles will do anything we say. lapdogs all
Dear Tubby Kim....Did you know we had spy planes?
(1) They pay for it, not you.
(2) It reminds the world and particularly North Korea that the US does have allies.
(3) Connected to the second, it blunts the constant claims by left wingers that the US acts "unilaterally" as if it some sort of aggressor.
Because ours are busy .......
Cant be everywhere at once
Have to factor in down time for maintenance and crew rest
The more have the better it is
Your answer 1 didn't occur to me, but I'll bet they want to get free AVGAS from our KC-135s!
BTW, 5th DSCS veteran!
When you ask somebody to fly halfway across the world, you have to pay for their gas, man.
They are primarily elint birds.Electronic intelligence collectors. I don’t think they have any optical or IR sensors. So they listen on a lot of frequencies for radios, radars, dedicated microwave links, etc. While it is great to get all that, it is even better to get a location for the source too - particularly if you’re looking for something new, not just listening to a known source. You can triangulate a position from a single aircraft due to aircraft motion - if the geometry works out (source position relative to flight path) and the source is active long enough for aircraft motion to establish a base leg. Having multiple aircraft - inviting friends to the party - increases your likelihood of getting a fix, and the accuracy of that fix.
I'm Australian (and ex-Royal Australian Navy) and when we put troops on the ground in Iraq in 2003, the numbers were relatively insignificant, but it was important in helping the US defer some of the criticism that it was "acting alone". This is quite often the case with US-lead military operations - other nations wind up contributing fairly small forces just to make it clear that the US has their political support - one of the most powerful gestures a country can make is to put even a small number of troops into service.
Less often, it happens the other way around - the last time Australia had to put troops into stablise East Timor, the US provided a couple of C-17s to help move them. While the help was transport was itself valuable, the real value of that was the message to the potential enemy that Australia could rely on the might of the United States to back us up if needed.
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