Is The US Prepared For Airborne Attack By North Korea?

War with North Korea is a top international security concern for American officials, and in the background of daily operations, the military has been preparing. Soldiers run drills to prepare for overseas mobilization and practice moving troops and cargo under artillery fire. But is the US military really prepared for an attack? New airborne threat detection technology could determine their success.

Assessing The Danger

It’s obvious that the threat of attack on the United States from North Korea is a real one, to the point that President Trump has been working with China in hopes that the Chinese government will support efforts to denuclearize North Korea. Without nuclear weapons, the threat from North Korea would certainly be diminished, but the country would still present a real danger. Recently, Kim Jong-un even bragged of a new tactical weapon that could give the country a significant advantage in a long-distance war. But the US also has new tools at its disposal.

Defense Strategies

One of the core approaches to defense in a war with North Korea would be airborne intervention – the ability to stop an attack before it happens by meeting a missile or other weapon en route. Patrolling military planes use new airborne countermeasure systems to detect and destroy radio and infrared frequency missiles. Meanwhile, from the ground, the military relies on a variety of sensors and networked artificial intelligence systems that are equipped both to detect and predict potential threats.

Two of the most important ground-based defense systems in use by the US military are Ground Based Air Defense-Transformation, or GBAD, and the Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar, or G/ATOR. These systems were both approved over the last few years and are designed to detect everything from cruise missiles to drones. G/ATOR is equipped with 360-degree scanning and can simultaneously track one threat while seeking out others.

Is It Enough?

Though the US has shown significant improvements in its military’s capability to deal with airborne threats, there are still concerns about whether this will be enough. After all, despite out-scale military spending, countries like China, a supposed ally against North Korea, have more advanced tools, such as radar technology that can counter fifth-generation stealth fighters. China is currently willing to sell this technology – to the UK at least – but in light of recent sanctions from the US, it’s unlikely that the American military will be able to access it.

Furthermore, inconsistencies on the part of President Trump, and the United States government more broadly, make it hard to predict both the likelihood of war with North Korea or which countries will ally with the United States. Another problem is that the US military is spread thin at present; in addition to the ongoing present in Iraq, Afghanistan, and several other countries, President Trump also just sent 5,200 troops to the US-Mexico border, in addition to 2,000 National Guard members. In a war that will look very different from recent battles in the Middle East, this arrangement will be untenable.

War with North Korea would be of unprecedented proportions based on the country’s weapons stockpile. As such, though it may be possible for the US to defend itself from airborne attack with its current technology, defense alone may not be enough. Better offensive technology – preemptive technology, even – might be the only way to address the volume of weapons at North Korea’s disposal.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes