As It Happens: Sino-Korean War
-
NY Times, June 5th, 2035, 1345 hours Korean Local Time.
"The tensions that have simmered for decades on the Korean Peninsula have finally boiled over into a catastrophic disaster of historical proportions. With the overthrow a decade ago of the Kim regime by a Chinese backed coup and the installation of General Won Yuk Soo of the new provisional government and the creation of a new “Sino-Korean Alliance” in 2025. Tensions have steadily risen in South Korea and the United States with aggressive actions by an economically resurgent China being a primary cause. These tensions have finally snapped the bonds of deterrence and a massive invasion of mixed Chinese and Korean forces have begun an unprecedented invasion of South Korea.
The North Korean forces have been bolstered by Chinese Aircraft, Tanks and Artillery. China has poured billions of dollars in equipment costs updating and rebuilding North Korea’s antiquated air defense system. Air Force planners have long worried as they watched the Chinese move copies of Russian Buk, Tor, and S-300 systems into the Korean peninusla.
The first artillery shells began raining down Seoul at 9am Local Time causing mass panic and chaos in the streets as shells rained down on streets full of civilians carrying about their daily tasks. Civilian Casualties are unknown at this time but the South Korean Civil Defense Ministry official has stated casualties are “unimaginably high”.
In Breaking News, General David Petraeus Jr, PacCom Combatant Commander, has issued a briefing to the public regarding the opening events of the war.
"At 9am Korean Local Time, the combined forces of North Korea and China, the so called “Sino-Korean Alliance”, launched an unprovoked and unnecessary assault on the people of South Korea and her allies. SKA aircraft violated the border with South Korea and deliberately launched air to ground attacks against UN forces currently stationed on the DMZ. With the full aggression of the SKA apparent, long prepared war plans were implemented designed to blunt the aggression and limit the damage of, The Sino-Korean Alliance.
We are still in the first hours of this newborn conflict, and reports from the front are still being analyzed. More information will be made available as it develops."
General Petraeus had no further comment and took no questions.
The citizens of Seoul were treated to a dramatic but dangerous sight in the late morning hours. Dozens of fighter aircraft streaking and turning overhead in a massive dogfight the likes of which have not been seen since the Second World War. Dozens of citizens have been killed by falling debris as burning aircraft fell from the sky over downtown Seoul for at least 45 minutes, adding the confusion, chaos and panic in the streets. The South Korean Air Defense Command released this statement.
At 10:30am this morning. The brave pilots of the 153rd Fighter Squadron engaged in a highly successful defensive operation of Seoul. A very large force of SKA aircraft, numbering several dozen, penetrated our airspace and approached Seoul from the west in an attempt to attack our airbases.
Anticipating this kind of attack as soon as it became clear where this large enemy force was headed the full might of the 153rd Squadron was unleashed over Seoul to repel the vile enemy with outstanding results."
Reports indicate that the SKA attack force was comprised of MiG-27, MiG-29, and J-11 aircraft, while the 153rd Squadron is equipped with the much older F-4 Phantom II aircraft. Old or not, when combined with the heroic and skilled efforts of US Army Patriot SAM batteries, the SKA force was rapidly forced away from Seoul with heavy losses.
Another report, this one from a US Air Force official states that once the enemy attack squadrons were pushed away from Seoul and back across the border into North Korea, a long planned trap was sprung on the SKA Forces. A full squadron of F-15E Strike Eagles from the 90th Fighter Squadron and two Squadrons of F-16 Falcon aircraft moved in. For almost two hours the largest air battle seen since World War II unfolded in the skies above the DMZ while a smaller group of F-16’s from the 13th Fighter Squadron moved in on Koksan Airbase in North Korea and heavily damaged it. Intelligence officials state that damage to the facility was high.
UN Losses have been termed as “Light to Moderate, depending on platform.”
Intelligence officers have estimated from gun camera footage, social media footage and other sources that the battle cost the SKA heavily in aircraft with some intelligence estimates as high as 15-20% of all SKA aircraft in the theater have been destroyed so far.
This effort has been helped along by an aggressive campaign aimed at knocking out North Korean airfields. Within the first two hours of hostilities beginning carefully coordinated strikes were carried out by F-16’s of the 13th Fighter Squadron.
“The first Offensive Counter Air operation of this newborn conflict has been carried out with great success. Many North Korean airfields have been knocked out and air defenses have been substantially degraded in strategic locations allowing UN forces access to much of North Korea, and possibly even China.”
-
Interview with Colonel Sam Richardson, USAF
Reporter: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today Colonel. This segment we’d like to focus on the North Korean Air Defense System. What can you tell us about it, and what kind of strategy are UN forces possibly using?
Col. Richardson: "The North Korean Air Defense system is the most heavily defended airspace in the world today. The Chinese government has spent mountains of money improving and upgrading DPRK air defenses. The North Korean Buffer State is of immense strategic importance to China, and they are willing to engage in whatever force is necessary to ensure it’s survival. We saw this 10 years ago when they overthrew Kim Jong Un. The Supreme Leader had simply become too unstable and dangerous to rule, and the Chinese wanted to make sure that if anyone other than Kim was going to rule North Korea. It would be someone of their choosing.
With the creation of the SKA in 2025, the Chinese in all practical terms, extended their own national border south to the 38th Parallel. Naturally this upset the Americans and Japanese, to say nothing of the South Koreans who no longer faced a weak medieval power, but the full might of the Chinese dragon right on their doorstep.
Anyway, over the last 10 years the Chinese have completely rebuilt the DPRK IADS. North Korea is now crawling with the newest mobile SAM systems and the threat is ever present. Pilot’s must constantly keep an eye out the canopy looking for the tell tale smoke trail of a SAM. It really is nerve wracking. This is why our forces are engaged in what we call DEAD, or Destruction of Air Defenses. So far we’ve had some moderate success. The Chinese seem to replace the launchers almost as fast as they are destroyed, but we have had some successes. In the area south of Pyongyang for instance. Our reports indicate that most of the air defense batteries from the coast north to Pyongyang have been neutralized and continuing efforts are ongoing to destroy the air defenses around Pyongyang, which is an extensive and time consuming job with every system mobile, and these systems have 4-6 launchers.
So this isn’t to say the danger is over. The whole country is crawling with various mobile air defense systems and whether you choose a high level attack envelope or a low one danger is everywhere and ever present.
Reporter: What about the the SKA Airbases?
Col. Richardson: "A major early and sustained focus of our campaign is on maintaining control of the airspace within a hundred miles or so of the DMZ. This requires enormous and possibly costly effort to pull off. Part of that effort is a sustained series of air strikes carried out under the cover of F-15’s or other air superiority oriented aircraft by F-16’s.
We know for instance that Haeju, Ongjin, Taetan, Kwail, Hwangju and Koksan our now out of the picture for some time. The damage was pretty extensive and it may take quite a while for the DPRK forces to engage in repairs. Of course there are plenty more airfields north feeding aircraft into the border zone and making attacks against UN ground and air forces there.
Once air superiority has been established, at least temporarily or locally, then operations can begin to slow the attack of the SKA ground forces. But air superiority must be established first to allow a safe sky for the apaches and the A-10’s in the region."
Reporter: Thank you for enlightening us on UN strategy and the threat of North Korea to our pilots Colonel.
-
AP Newswire 1800 Korea Local Time
PacCom Command on recent Offensive Counter Air Operations: “Less than Successful”
The new Sino-Korean Conflict has taken a dramatic turn as aerial combat intensified over the Korean Peninsula in the late afternoon hours. PacCom commanders have described the losses as “worrying”.
In a large offensive operation taking place at 1400 hours, a multi squadron sortie was directed against the southern half of the Pyongyang Air Defense zone in an attempt to open the capital to strategic bombing raids. UN Planners have commented that there are anywhere from 60-75 mobile Buk SAM launchers within the Pyongyang Zone alone and rooting them out is costly and difficult.
“These Buk copies, when teamed with low altitude triple A like the Tunguska, are absolutely deadly. These systems can fire on the move and hide in places where they are almost impossible to see from the air. There are a couple of Tor batteries in Pyongyang as well, so that adds to the difficulty.”
US Air Force officials have stated that most of the S-300 systems have been put out of commission by UN attack packages. Lessening the danger of high altitude strike missions but at great cost in aircraft, as these SA-10 sites are themselves heavily defended by swarms of Buk and 2S6 weapon systems and fighter aircraft patrols.
To make things worse for the afternoon phase, SKA forces managed to successfully launch a strike against Osan Airbase just south of Seoul. This is a heavy blow for UN forces, as there are only a half dozen or so airfields capable of efficient and sustained combat operations and the loss of any one of them for a significant amount of time can cripple UN war efforts in the air.
“Osan is just wiped out, damage to airbase facilities were light but the runway is just wrecked. We have no idea how long it will take to repair it. Air operations have ceased at Osan airbase for the time being.”
With the poor performance of the Pyongyang strike, and the successful SKA attack on Osan this afternoon. The war has dramatically returned to a stalemate where at noon, planners were confident that SKA forces were being successfully attrited with minimal UN losses.
“We’re just stunned by the pace and tempo of this conflict. It is unlike anything we have faced in our careers. Force levels have plummeted this afternoon as the SKA successfully manged to repel our air defense campaign with minimal damage and then the strike on Osan. This is a whole new war. The only good news is the Chinese losses are just as high, and it looks like we’re sitting at near parity over the evening and overnight phases.”
On the ground, events are at a stalemate with ground forces along the DMZ holding, or withdrawing in good order from larger forces when necessary. Allied forces are hampered by a lack of air superiority allowing A-10 and helicopters to operate with impunity in the FLOT. Key bridges have been struck by UN Forces, slowing down the assault as much as possible.
-
Totally cool, S.
Put a carrier off the coast and sign me up! -
There is no way North Korea makes it to 2035
-
Well in this scenario, they don’t. Kim is overthrown in 2025 and replaced by a DPRK General who is a puppet of Beijing and signs an alliance giving China full access to the North Korean territory. Something like that has to happen. China will never let a unified Korea ruled from Seoul on it’s border.
Think of it as artistic license for a fictionalized account of my current campaign. lol
-
Very cool idea.
-
Hey, Tom Clancy made his name writing entire books of fictionalized accounts of his Harpoon sessions with Dan Brown. Red October was originally a Harpoon scenario thought up by Brown. Red Storm Rising was also a Harpoon scenario they invented to play.
50 Shades of Gray started as Twilight Fan Fiction. The Martian was originally serialized blog fiction before fans convinced that author to publish.
The Falcon Campaign is an ideal setting and creates ready made events to imagine and write. Who knows where this could end up. The computer could write the book for me. Finish the campaign, collect the news accounts and notes and materials and edit it all together into something with a plot and characters. Who knows… I’m just exercising my imagination. If the community enjoys it and I make it through the campaign, there are plenty of other campaigns to mine for creative writing material. Maybe I’ll do the balkans next.
-
Midnight, Korean Local Time
Associated Press - Night has fallen across the Korean Peninsula and midnight has come marking the end of the first day of this continuing war. Combat operations in the air continue, although at much less intensity than earlier in the day as heavy work loads and casualties take their toll on machines and men. UN Commanders are upbeat and confident. UN commanders have also stated that air superiority in the area around the DMZ has been achieved, although it is tenuous and possibly even temporary. They credit new tactics developed combined with new weapons to turn the tide against the SKA.
"We came up with this concept called a SATCAP, or SATuration Combat Air Patrol. Basically, we have identified several areas around the DMZ where enemy strike packages tend to congregate. Once these areas were identified, we sent in air strikes to sanitize a wide area of all anti-aircraft artillery and SAMs using Joint Stand Off Weapons. Those weapons have really made a difference as we are able to attack from much safer ranges. After the air defenses in these areas were cleaned up. We sent in large packages of fighter aircraft. Anywhere from 16-32 Aircraft packed into a box about 50 miles by 50 miles and 30000 feet high arranged in layers 10,000 ft high. The area is hence saturated with allied fighter aircraft at all altitudes. These operations lasted anywhere from 2-4 hours due to the intensity and numbers of aircraft involved meaning that this tactic cannot be sustained for longer than a few hours. However, SKA forces have suffered very heavy casualties as a result of the new tactics and our own losses have leveled off. They simply could not put enough fighters into the air after we knocked out those airbases to contest the airspace once we decided to take it.
The fact that every airfield in the southern half of North Korea has been rendered inoperable has dramatically slowed SKA air ops against our forces, and while casualties remain heavy, particularly in several squadrons that have been heavily engaged over the previous day. Some reinforcements have arrived to replenish our losses. The SKA forces are attempting the same, but losses have so far outstripped their ability to reinforce. Our pilots are simply doing outstanding work."
UN Intelligence officials have estimated that the SKA airforce has been heavily hit, and are estimating somewhere around 60-65% casualties have been inflicted on the SKA air forces.
“They’re hurting. No doubt about it they are hurting bad. But we have a very long way to go.”
-
you are a story teller. learn to operate a camera sir. When you get paid, remember this post :). Enjoyed reading it, was waiting for mexican armada to show up in battle mechs
-
-
North Korea will be here for a lonnnnggg time, they have played their hand as well as it could be played as bad as it is.
they realize that south korea will never have nukes, and would never allow the US to invade because they have everything to lose and shit to gain.also they would never invade unless they had the next 50 moves preplanned, expect a korean invasion (if it ever occurs) to be thorough with little room for an immediate response.
-
Eagerly waiting for more!