North Korea's underground hangar

[Pepelev]

Hey all, as a North Korea buff (studied the place in politics etc) I thought to dig deeper into the KPAF and googled some of its airbases‪, I found Kaechon airbase. With the 35th Fighter Regiment and its Mig-19s/J-6  and What I think to be underground  hangars, what's your opinions on the base and It's hidden hangars?? 

the bases flightline, showing mig-19s and mig-15UTI (the Mig-19s have been running recently note the worn grass) also note the camo net worn by the mig on the far right of the line.

The above flightline is top right of this image, with a maintenance yard in the bottom centre and the underground hangar entrances on the hillside.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Pepelev

[AeroViper34]

1 hour ago, Pepelev said:

Hey all, as a North Korea buff (studied the place in politics etc) I thought to dig deeper into the KPAF and googled some of its airbases‪, I found Kaechon airbase. With the 35th Fighter Regiment and its Mig-19s/J-6  and What I think to be underground  hangars, what's your opinions on the base and It's hidden hangars?? 

the bases flightline, showing mig-19s and mig-15UTI (the Mig-19s have been running recently note the worn grass) also note the camo net worn by the mig on the far right of the line.

The above flightline is top right of this image, with a maintenance yard in the bottom centre and the underground hangar entrances on the hillside.

Oh, I'd definitely be willing to bet most North Korean airbases have an underground hangar or storage of some type.  A lot of them have airstrips built right up next to mountains and hills where they can hide their aircraft, and one even has a secondary runway right through a mountain.  Here's a link with some really good info about some of their aircraft and airfield locations, as well as some underground hangars: https://freekorea.us/2007/04/29/the-north-korean-air-force-by-google-earth/

Edited February 20, 2019 by AeroViper34

[Pepelev]

1 minute ago, AeroViper34 said:

Oh, I'd definitely be willing to bet most North Korean airbases have an underground hangar or storage of some type.  A lot of them have airstrips built right up next to mountains and hills where they can hide their aircraft, and even one that has a secondary runway right through a mountain.  Here's a link with some really good info about some of their aircraft and airfield locations, as well as some underground hangars: https://freekorea.us/2007/04/29/the-north-korean-air-force-by-google-earth/

The question is how effective would the hangars be?? I do think the Mig-19 would still fair well.

[AeroViper34]

1 minute ago, Pepelev said:

The question is how effective would the hangars be?? I do think the Mig-19 would still fair well.

The underground hangars are certainly harder to destroy and require more effort, but I think that targeting them with specialized munitions wouldn't be too much more effort outside of other probably planned strike missions, like cratering the runway, destroying aircraft on the flight line, etc.  The Mig-19 has always been one of my favorite Soviet-era fighters, but I doubt it would last long against modern aircraft assuming they got off the ground or assuming that most are still operable with the lack of available parts.  The Mig-29s based near Pyongyang would likely give the most trouble, but we all saw how those were handled in the First Gulf War...

[Pepelev]

18 minutes ago, AeroViper34 said:

The underground hangars are certainly harder to destroy and require more effort, but I think that targeting them with specialized munitions wouldn't be too much more effort outside of other probably planned strike missions, like cratering the runway, destroying aircraft on the flight line, etc.  The Mig-19 has always been one of my favorite Soviet-era fighters, but I doubt it would last long against modern aircraft assuming they got off the ground or assuming that most are still operable with the lack of available parts.  The Mig-29s based near Pyongyang would likely give the most trouble, but we all saw how those were handled in the First Gulf War...

Well the North only has about 30 fulcrums, but 97 Farmers. Don't forget against something like an A-10 or B-52 the Mig-19 would be a good dogfight opponent. Plus as the photo I've tagged shows, the Norths farmers are ATA missile capable. 

This 19 is actually based at Oncheon with the 36th air Regiment , it's shown here on the 2014 exercises 

[AeroViper34]

31 minutes ago, Pepelev said:

Well the North only has about 30 fulcrums, but 97 Farmers. Don't forget against something like an A-10 or B-52 the Mig-19 would be a good dogfight opponent. Plus as the photo I've tagged shows, the Norths farmers are ATA missile capable. 

This 19 is actually based at Oncheon with the 36th air Regiment , it's shown here on the 2014 exercises 

I think that the Mig-19s would likely be used for a limited CAS or strike role with a light bomb or rocket armament, as something like an A-10 or B-52 would probably have escorting fighters.  ROK/US/Allied air defenses would also severely limit their effectiveness.  Personally, I would be more concerned about North Korean SAM sites than aircraft.  That is a neat picture though, I wonder what missiles they can equip.  I would assume late-model Atolls.

[Pepelev]

5 hours ago, AeroViper34 said:

I think that the Mig-19s would likely be used for a limited CAS or strike role with a light bomb or rocket armament, as something like an A-10 or B-52 would probably have escorting fighters.  ROK/US/Allied air defenses would also severely limit their effectiveness.  Personally, I would be more concerned about North Korean SAM sites than aircraft.  That is a neat picture though, I wonder what missiles they can equip.  I would assume late-model Atolls.

From my sources they can arm with standard K-13 and some late atolls, although most of the missiles are out of shelf life by now. Also if you note under the fuselage there's four bomb racks fitted, again probably for serving in the CAS/ light strike  role.