North Korean Air Force looks to Moscow !

North Korean Air Force looks to Moscow:

In late August Russian and North Korean experts held talks that could lead to a boost in Russian arms sales to Pyongyang. While North Korea cannot afford to buy large numbers of modern weapons systems it does need to update its obsolete equipment. This is good news for Russia, because North Korean weapons are largely of Soviet origin. North Korea produces no aircraft itself, although it does produce some spare parts for its aircraft.

As Asia Times Online reported last month (North Korean, Russian ties firmly on track, August 27), currently Russian arms sales to North Korea are estimated at about US$10 million a year, presumably a minimum level to supply the North Korean army with most needed spare parts. North Korea reportedly sought some $100 million of Russian arms supplies per annum, but Moscow has been reluctant to extend new loans to cash-strapped Pyongyang.

Russian specialists say the North Korean Air Force is most in need of updating, according to a report by Agence France Presse. It has 500 aircraft but only 30 MiG-29 fighters and 35 Su-25 fighters can be classed as being up to date. More than half of the air force is grounded and needs repair and modernization.

About two-thirds of the North Korean Air Force is older-generation Soviet- or Chinese-made designs incorporating 1950s and 1960s technology, with rudimentary avionics and limited weapons systems capability. Older fighter aircraft include 160 MiG-21/Fishbeds, 20 Su-7/Fitters, 160 MiG-19/Farmers, 120 MiG-17/Frescos, and 190 MiG-15/Fagots. Most of these aircraft are daylight, clear-weather-capable only, and carry limited weapon loads. Three regiments totaling 80 medium-range Il-28/BEAGLEs are the only bombers in the air force inventory.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, the Soviet Union supplied a variety of a limited number of more modern all-weather air-defense and ground-attack aircraft. In 1985, North Korea acquired 45 MiG-23/Floggers, with increased range and payload over other older, less capable North Korean fighters. This aircraft can carry the older AA-2/Atoll and the more sophisticated AA-7/Apex air-to-air missiles in an air-intercept role. It can also be armed with general-purpose bombs and rockets for ground-attack missions.

In 1985, North Korea also acquired 15 Soviet MiG-29/Fulcrum fighters. The MiG-29 carries the AA-10/Alamo beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. These Fulcrums provide Pyongyang with a limited but much improved air-defense capability.

In the late 1980s, the air force improved its ground-attack capabilities when it acquired 35 Su-25/Frogfoot aircraft from the Soviet Union. All-weather-capable and well armored, the Frogfoot has a combat radius of 300 nautical miles and carries up to 5,000 kilograms of bombs and rockets.

While Russia provides North Korea with spare parts for its Soviet-built fighter jets and armor, it has no intention of giving it any offensive weapons, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said on August 26. “We are supplying some equipment that cannot be called modern, let alone offensive, to North Korea.” He said Russia is supplying North Korea with defense systems and spare parts for tanks and fighter planes.

In recent years, Russia, unlike other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries – Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan – has delivered practically no weapons to the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. According to information in the United Nations Register, over the past 10 years Russia has sold about 260 “Igla-1” surface-to-air complexes to North Korea, though it also gave Pyongyang a license to manufacture them, as well as several missiles for combat cutters.

Meanwhile, Russia has delivered to South Korea 10 Mi-17 helicopters, 80 BMP-3 combat vehicles, 20 BTR-80 armored transporters, and 80 T-80U tanks. Rosoboroneksport, Russia’s main arms-trading company, is conducting negotiations on the sale to Seoul of S-300PMU and S-300V surface-to-air missile systems, as well as Ka-50 helicopters – the “Chernaya Akula” (“Black Shark”).

Yet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited Russia in late August for the second consecutive summer. He brought with him members of his State Defense Council, a secretary of the Central Committee of the Labor Party of Korea, government ministers and other officials. Last year he traveled 13,000 kilometers from the North Korean capital to Moscow and back along the Trans-Siberian railroad.

During his trip he visited Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he took in an aviation production association of the Sukhoi Corp and a shipyard. Reportedly he spent two-and-a-half hours on the Sukhoi plant shop floors. He watched the process of manufacturing an Su-27 jet fighter and a super-heavy press that die-stamped a variety of aircraft parts in his presence.

Sukhoi Corp director-general Mikhail Pogosyan said the North Korean government delegation had shown clear interest in the achievements of the Russian aviation industry.

Earlier, ahead of the visit, Pogosyan had said the North Korean leader and delegation would be familiarized with the Su-30MKK fighter planes manufactured for China, the upgraded Su-30 planes for service with the Russian Air Force and the program of development and production of a new multi-mission plane, the Su-80, and two amphibian planes, the Be-20 and the Be-103.
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link: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/DI19Dg01.html