The U.S. Air Force issued a notice on the crash of an F-16 fighter jet stationed in South Korea into the sea, which occurred just six months after the crash of the F-16 stationed in South Korea at the Osan base in May this year. As the main fighter plane that has attracted much attention to contain China and North Korea, the F-16 has frequently crashed in recent years, which makes people sigh and sigh. What is even more worrying is that not only the US military's own F-16s have frequent accidents, but even the F-16s purchased by Japan and South Korea have crashed many times. This has raised doubts about whether the U.S. military and its allies can still rely on the aging F-16 to take on the task of suppressing China and North Korea. What kind of solution will the US military adopt to this thorny problem?
According to information released by the U.S. Air Force, at around 8:43 a.m. on December 11, an F-16 that had just taken off crashed into the Yellow Sea, and the pilot was rescued by a South Korean ship after ejection and returned to the Gunsan base, and the pilot was in good health. Although the crashed F-16 model was not specified in the bulletin, judging by several **releases**, it seems to be a single-seat version of the F-16C. The 8th Fighter Wing, based at the Gunsan base in South Korea, deployed a total of 30 F-16C D fighters. The wing became the first U.S. military overseas unit to be equipped with an F-16 since it was first converted from an F-4 to an F-16A in May 1981, 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 batch of Block 2000 that has been updated since the 40th year. They can carry munitions such as Joint Attack Munitions, AGM-154 air-launched cruise missiles, ammunition dispersers, EGBU-2 "Bunker Saboteur" bombs, and add new equipment such as pilot night vision imaging systems and infrared targeting pods. It can be said that the U.S. military has been taking priority escalation measures to ensure that the F-16s stationed in South Korea and Japan have the ability to respond to changes in the surrounding situation. In recent years, the Chinese Air Force has been equipped with a large number of J-10C, J-16 and J-20 fighters, breaking the "island chain" blockade strategy led by the United States. North Korea has a large number of nuclear and missile weapons and ignores the United States and South Korea.
Faced with this situation, the United States has frequently held joint military Xi with Japan and South Korea and increased daily training in an attempt to suppress the situation through a show of military power. In these joint military exercises, F-16 and other fighters have always been the focus of training. In the past, the F-16 was an unrivaled existence, and the air forces of China and North Korea could not compete with it. However, time has passed, and now these F-16 fighters around China and North Korea are not only technologically backward, but also have an old airframe, and their life span is close to the limit. Over the years, not only have the F-16s used by the US military have had many serious accidents such as crashes, but even the F-16s purchased by Japan and South Korea have frequently malfunctioned, resulting in many major accidents and grounding incidents.
For example, in a crash in May this year, an F-16 crashed into nearby farmland after taking off from Osan Air Base in South KoreaOn August 17, a two-seater F-16D was forced to taxi and land due to landing gear failureOn November 20, 2022, a ROK Air Force single-seat KF-16C crashed due to engine failure during routine training, and the ROAF subsequently 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, an F-16 of the US military stationed in Japan abandoned 2 auxiliary fuel tanks to Japanese territory without Japan's permission before an emergency landing, leading Japan to request a moratorium on the aircraft in the country.
All flight activities. Therefore, after the baptism of years, the F-16 has long since ceased to be what it used to be. Not only does it lose its ability to deter an imaginary enemy, but it may even encounter accidents in peacetime flights. In view of this, in recent years, the US military has encouraged Japan and South Korea to increase the purchase of F-35s to replace the F-16, and at the same time, it has also stationed more F-35 fighters at bases in Japan and South Korea, hoping to regain air superiority. Not only does the U.S. military continue to use F-16 fighters totaling nearly 800, but it has launched a $6.3 billion program to upgrade 608 F-16C Ds to the latest F-16V model starting in 2022.
This plan covers the upgrade of all F-16C D fighter jets of the US military stationed in South Korea, including the equipment of new radar, electronic warfare systems, high-speed data buses, and multi-purpose pods, and the ability to carry more types of ** ammunition, making it equipped with 4The capabilities of 5th generation fighters. This shows that the US military has demonstrated its strength as a formidable adversary by quickly proposing a temporary solution after realizing that it is already difficult to exert pressure on China and North Korea by relying on F-16 and other previous-generation fighter jets. Although in the face of these F-16Vs in the future, our J-10C and J-16 may not have as obvious an advantage as before, the J-20 still maintains the advantage of "generation difference", and we can also rely on the perfect local system to ensure victory.
However, the large number of U.S. and South Korean F-16Vs deployed by South Korea will pose a serious threat to North Korea's missile launch bases and nuclear facilities when combined with the F-35s, which have stealth and information superiority. How will North Korea respond to this threat?