U.S. Air Force notification of the crash.
The incident in which the US military F-16 stationed in South Korea crashed into the sea near South Korea is just half a year after the crash of another US military F-16 stationed in South Korea at the Osan base in May this year. As the F-16, which has been in the limelight for decades and is also the main fighter plane of China and North Korea, the news of crashes has been frequently exposed over the years, which can not help but make people sigh and sigh. And not only the US military's own F-16 has frequent accidents, but even the F-16 purchased by Japan and South Korea has crashed many times. It makes people wonder whether the US military and its "client states" can still use this old F-16 to assume the purpose of suppressing China and North KoreaAnd what solution has the U.S. military come up with for this thorny problem?
According to information released by the US Air Force, at about 8:43 a.m. on December 11, a US F-16 that had just taken off from the Gunsan base in South Korea crashed into the Yellow Sea. The pilot was rescued by a South Korean ship after ejecting into the sea, and then returned to the Gunsan base, where the pilot was in good health. Although the specific model of the crashed F-16 was not stated in the published news, judging from the distribution of several companies, it should be a single-seat version of the F-16C. The 8th Fighter Wing of the US military stationed at the Gunsan base in South Korea has deployed a total of 30 F-16C D fighters.
The fighter wing was the first U.S. military unit to be equipped with an F-16 in May 1981, when it was first converted from an F-4 to an F-16A, and was upgraded to the then newest F-16C D in 1988. Currently, the F-16 of the 8th Fighter Wing of the US Army at the Gunsan base in South Korea is a Block 40 batch that has been updated since 2000. Ammunition such as joint attack munitions, AGM-154 air-launched cruise missiles, ammunition dispersers, EGBU-2 "bunker breaker" bombs and other ammunition can be used, and new equipment such as a night vision imaging system for pilots and infrared targeting pods has been added.
It can be said that although the US military has always adopted priority upgrade measures for the F-16 stationed in South Korea and Japan, it ensures that it has the ability to respond to sudden changes in the surrounding situation. However, it is a pity that with the batch replacement of J-10C, J-16 and J-20 fighters of the Chinese Air Force in recent years, it has already broken through the so-called "island chain" blockade built by the United States with Japan as the backboneMoreover, the DPRK side north of the peninsula also holds a "nuclear stick" and a large number of missiles and does not take the United States and South Korea seriously!In response to these thorny situations, the United States has frequently joined forces with Japan and the ROK to organize joint military exercises in the surrounding areas and intensified daily training in a vain attempt to rely on the show of force to forcibly suppress them. In these joint military exercises, air forces such as the F-16 have always been the focus of Xi.
When the F-16 was born, it was an invincible opponent that swept the world, and the air forces of China and North Korea were simply unable to compete with one of them!However, time has passed, and now these F-16s around China and North Korea are not only technologically backward, but also have an old body, and their lifespan is also close to the limit. In recent years, not only have the F-16s used by the US military have had many serious accidents such as plane crashes, but even the F-16s purchased by Japan and South Korea have also broken down frequently, and there have also been many major accidents that have crashed and been grounded in the past two years.
The U.S. F-16 made a forced landing on the belly of the aircraft.
For example, before the US F-16 crash, there was already a crash in May this year. At that time, an F-16 crashed into nearby farmland while taking off from Osan Air Base in South Korea for trainingOn August 17, a two-seater F-16D was forced to use an external fuel tank under the belly of the aircraft to slide and make a forced landing because the landing gear could not be loweredOn November 20, 2022, a single-seat KF-16C of the South Korean Air Force crashed due to engine failure during daily training, and then the South Korean Air Force grounded all F-16s;Earlier, on June 8, 2021, another South Korean KF-16 crashed due to a mid-air collision with a bird;Even in 2021, because an F-16 of the US military stationed in Japan abandoned two auxiliary fuel tanks to Japanese territory without the permission of the Japanese side before an emergency landing, Japan asked the US military to suspend all F-16 flight activities in the country.
It can be seen from this that after the baptism of the "pig-killing knife" of the "years", the F-16 has long been gone. Not only has it lost its ability to deter its "imaginary enemy," but it may even be accidentally "killed" even when it usually "goes out for a walk." Therefore, in recent years, in addition to encouraging Japan and South Korea to increase the purchase of F-35s to replace F-16s, hoping to regain air superiority, the US military has also sent more F-35s to bases in Japan and South Korea. At the same time, the U.S. military has not given up its fleet of nearly 800 F-16s, and has started a $6.3 billion plan to upgrade 608 F-16C Ds to the latest F-16Vs in 2022 — including all F-16C D fighter jets of the U.S. military in South Korea. These soon-to-be-retired F-16s are equipped with new radars, electronic warfare systems, high-speed data buses, multi-functional pods, and the ability to use more ** ammunition to bring it up to 4The capabilities of 5th generation fighters.
It can be seen from this that after the US military found it difficult to exert pressure on China and North Korea by relying on F-16 and other previous-generation fighters, it was able to quickly come up with a temporary solution, indicating that it is still a formidable opponent. In the future, in the face of these F-16V, although the advantage that our J-10C and J-16 can occupy is not as great as before, the J-20 still maintains a "generational difference" advantage over them, and we can also rely on the local perfect system to ensure victory. However, the deployment of a large number of US and South Korean F-16Vs in South Korea and the F-35 with stealth and information superiority will pose a serious threat to the DPRK's missile launch bases and nuclear facilities in close proximity