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.”