"If they fire one round at Seoul..." Topic

Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a retired Air Force general who is now a news analyst, is quoted in an August 9th interview as saying:

We use nuclear capabilities if they [North Korea] fire one round on Seoul. We destroy in five minutes because we have an airborne alert with cruise missiles that we can take out that artillery right away. We don't want to do it, but we will retaliate that

Is he suggesting that cruise missiles with nuke warheads can take out the NK artillery threatening Seoul???

Wow. Sure sounds like it.

Does that mean that maybe now we'll finally find out what's in our very own arsenal?

Dan

While nukes might be the only way to eliminate that artillery (which is reportedly in hardened locations), using nukes that close to an inhabited, allied city is a startling idea. On the other hand, the city suffers if the artillery is NOT taken out.

How 'tactical' are tactical nukes?

Their artillery looks very mobile too.

Dan

As for mini nukes …

Dan

Sigh…retired AF officers now acting as "news analysts"…

So far everything I've ever read (including the stuff I worked on when i was in Korea) said nothing about us "responding with tactical nukes" if the Norks fired "one round" at Seoul."

It's nice to know that he thinks that tac nukes are going to be tossed so freely.

*sarcasm filter off*

This just in from TMP…..

Murphy +1

The bunkers are designed to do two things, to allow barely trained recruits to simply point and shoot at the target and prevent anyone from turning the guns around and point them at Pyongyang. Many of the guns have been permanently fixed at a certain angle and elevation to prevent crews from accidentally hitting friendly targets etc.

The ammo is kept under lock and key, in the hands of the most reliable officers.

The "mobile artillery" is concentrated mostly in the area between Pyongyang and South Korea, manned by politically reliable troops (regardless of actual skill) and are to be used to either follow up the initial storm should the South Koreans buckle and fall back or shield Pyongyang and the regime from a counter-attack long enough until brother China comes to their rescue.

Like so many times before, North Korea is both a deadly threat and a classic dictatorship model where troops are only as good as the amount of propaganda they actually swallow.

What impressive targets all those massed guns and tanks would make if they actually fought in such a way!

Perfect target for Air-Fuel Explosive bombs (aka Hyperbaric)- looks like a nuke but no radiation. The USAF had them decades ago, no idea if they are still in inventory. The Israelis got into trouble for using some on SAM sites last century.

Vlad has heaps on mobile launchers in the Ukraine, too bad the US or ROK can't borrow a few batteries for 'test purposes'.

Bsrlee,

The thermobaric bombs were (are?) an impressive lot indeed!

Dan

Anyone else think that the North Koreans use Flames of War to game their simulations?

I was just thinking the exact same thing, Super.

Tom

Are you implying we might have a pic of Nork generals weighted down with medals pondering the nationality specific rules they should be allowed to use? That would be nice. The lined up arty looks like a hot dog eating contest for the Air Force. How many could you take out in one run?

Another +1 for Murphy. Pretty much any retired general can get a gig talking whatever they want on tv.

More on this:

Retired Gen. Tom McInerney on Monday said the United States has the capability to take out every city in North Korea, if Kim Jong Un were to fire artillery into Seoul, South Korea.

"If he gets our full nuclear retaliatory capability, within minutes after one round going into Seoul, there will be nothing left," McInerney told Liz Claman on "Countdown to the Closing Bell." "If you go to Airborne Alert—we used to call it "Chrome Dome"—with nuclear weapons and then we start building up our other forces, et cetera, he will not last 15 minutes."

link

Interesting that he thinks the U.S. would escalate to nuclear weapons immediately. On the other hand, tactical nukes do seem to be the appropriate counter-measure for static bunkered artillery.

Hopefully it's just deterrence. The citizens of Seoul will hardly be happy with the fallout from a handful of "small" nuclear strikes just 35 miles away.

If they launch at Seoul, they will not launch 'one' round.

I hope they don't of course, and think they know it would mean the end of their regime.

Every news outlet has their retired general "expert analyst". For those of us below the rank of general, we are limited to where we can bloviate (i.e. TMP). 😃

Considering that there is so much artillery pointed at Seoul that the delivery rate is measured in Kilotons per second, we might as well go nuclear since there's not going to be a Seoul left after the Norks open up.

I think that it is safe to say that North Korea will attack one day.

After all of the rhetoric from glorious leader they simply cannot back down.

He has everything to lose and nothing to gain from attacking.

Once he attacks his reign is over.