Tag: ROK Air Force

It sounds like a human interface issue has been discovered in this aircraft. You would think it would not be this easy to accidentally jettison parts of the aircraft like this:

A South Korean Air Force pilot mistakenly pressed the emergency jettison button while attempting to adjust the heating in a KA-1 light attack aircraft that accidentally dropped its weapons and fuel tanks last week, authorities said Monday.

The Air Force said the pilot was attempting to adjust an air vent that was disrupting his vision when the incident occurred at 8:22 p.m. on Friday over Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, during a nighttime mock firing exercise.

The vent and emergency jettison button, which measure 3.5 centimeters and 3.3 centimeters in diameter, respectively, are located close to each other, contributing to the confusion, authorities said.

“The pilot, who was wearing night vision goggles, reported that strong wind was blowing into his helmet through the ventilation system. While trying to adjust the heater controls near the air vent, he mistakenly pressed the emergency jettison button,” Lt. Col. Jang Dong-ha, spokesperson for the Air Force, said during a press briefing in Seoul.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but fortunately no one on the ground was injured from the jettisoned equipment.

It is hard for me to say that a lack of training caused the recent accident mishaps by the ROK Air Force like this defense analyst claims. Sometime accidents just happen and fortunately no one was killed unlike the U.S. Blackhawk helicopter that flew into a commercial airliner in Washington, D.C. After that crash no one claimed the U.S. military lacked training:

South Korea’s military has come under fire for lax discipline following a series of major accidents in recent months, including the latest involving the Air Force’s accidental dropping of two gun pods from a KA-1 light attack aircraft during training on Friday.

The series of incidents came amid a leadership vacuum in the military that began in December, prompting security concerns due to signs of a weakened defense posture. Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and several other key unit commanders were arrested and have been detained for their alleged roles in ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law declaration on Dec. 3. Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho is currently serving as the acting defense minister.

“On the surface, (the series of accidents) may seem to be merely a lack of discipline within the military, but it’s more an accumulation of inadequate military training,” said Yang Uk, a research fellow in military strategy and weapons systems at the Asan Institute of Policy Studies, speaking via phone on Sunday.

“It’s the result of inconsistency in military training, with the liberal Moon Jae-in administration having halted and scaled back several key drills and then the Yoon administration failing to revive the momentum of the exercises,” he said.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Could you imagine the SOFA issues if American pilots did something like this?:

South Korea’s military has charged two air force pilots with criminal negligence following an accidental bombing that injured 38 people outside a live-fire range.

The two unidentified KF-16 pilots were accused of mistakenly inputting incorrect bombing coordinates during a training flight on March 6, the Criminal Investigation Command of the Ministry of National Defense said in a news release Thursday.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Lee Young-su bows while issuing a public apology during a briefing at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul, Monday, after Air Force fighter jets accidentally dropped bombs on residential areas last Thursday. Yonhap

The ROK Air Force is very luck no one was killed in this accidental bombing strike because this could have been far more tragic:

The number of houses damaged in last week’s accidental bombing of a northern village has grown from 58 to 142 following a second survey, the local government said Sunday.

The village in Pocheon, some 40 kilometers north of Seoul, suffered large-scale damage after two KF-16 fighter jets “abnormally” dropped eight MK-82 bombs outside a training range during live-fire drills on Thursday.

Initially, 58 houses were reported damaged, but the number grew to 99 as of Saturday morning, and following a second survey, grew further to 142, according to the Pocheon municipal government.

Twenty-two households have evacuated their homes, while another nine households have returned following partial restoration work.

The number of injured civilians has also increased by two to 19.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Stars & Stripes is reporting that the wrong coordinates were entered causing the accidental bombing:

Initial investigations found the pilot of one of the KF-16s entered wrong coordinates for a bombing site. Officials said the pilots of two KF-16s had more than 200-400 hours of flying time. Lee said they likely piloted KF-16s only two to three years.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but these pilots did not have a lot of flight hours which I would not be surprised contributed to this accident.

This is the right thing to do considering North Korea’s capability to easily target one airbase with ballistic missiles. Spreading the F-35’s over multiple bases complicates the Kim regime’s targeting:

The South Korean air force plans to disperse its newest fleet of F-35A Lightning II stealth jets throughout the country, rather than at just one base, to better respond to North Korean threats, according to local media. Seoul agreed to purchase the 20 F-35As, expected to be operational by 2027, from the United States for nearly $2.9 billion in December.

It also agreed to buy $271 million worth of munitions for the aircraft that month. The country received its first 40 F-35As from a $7 billion deal in 2019. The new aircraft will be assigned to several, unspecified installations instead of operating out of Cheongju Air Base, which is home to the current F-35 fleet, unnamed officials said in a Yonhap News report Monday.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Outgoing F-4 Phantom fighters

Soldiers salute toward F-4 Phantom fighters after their final flights at the Air Force’s 10th Combat Squadron in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul, during a media event on June 5, 2024, ahead of their retirement on June 24 after 55 years of service. (Yonhap)

An end of an era for the ROK Air Force:

A group of South Korean Cold War-era fighter aircraft staged one of their final flights last week ahead of retirement next month, bidding farewell after more than five decades of service.

The four F-4 Phantom IIs took off from their home base in Suwon, just south of Seoul, for the commemorative flight boarded by reporters on Thursday, retracing the supersonic fighter-bomber’s 55-year history in South Korea’s airspace.

The first batch of the U.S.-made jets arrived in South Korea in 1969, in a major boost to the Air Force that sought to beef up its aircraft fleet against threats posed by North Korea’s Soviet-made jets amid fierce rivalry between the two Koreas.

More than a half-century later, the Phantoms will be fully retired from service on June 7, handing over operations to defend the skies to a new generation of aircraft.

Yonhap via a reader tip

You can read more at the link.