Air Force General Says His Planes Are Keeping An Eye Out For North Korea's "Christmas Gift" [2/2] - modified RC-135V Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft.png (1/1)

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The United States has stepped up aerial intelligence gathering around North
Korea, including using a newly modified RC-135V Rivet Joint surveillance
aircraft. This comes amid threats from the regime in Pyongyang to send the U.S.
government a "Christmas gift," very likely in the form of a long-range ballistic
missile test. The U.S. military has also said it is developing options for how
it might respond to such a launch, including reviewing plans that it developed
during the last period of significantly heightened tensions between the two
countries in 2017. American officials have said they could turn again to the
strategy they employed two years ago, which included shows of force in the air,
at sea, and on the ground.

Aircraft spotters using online tracking software have been recording the uptick
in aerial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations near
North Korea since at least the beginning of December. On Dec. 3, 2019, Ri Thae
Song, North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister of U.S. affairs, had made the
"Christmas gift" remark, which the regime in Pyongyang followed up with a
"strategic" test of a large rocket motor at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground
five days later.

The North Koreans have had a self-imposed moratorium on a long-range missile and
nuclear weapons tests since 2017, as a period of detente emerged between it and
the United States. This goodwill eroded steadily following the collapse of a
second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un in February 2019.

"There’s a pattern that you see with the North Koreans is their rhetoric
precedes activity, which precedes a launch," U.S. Air Force General Charles
Brown, head of Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), the service's top command in the
Pacific region, told reporters on Dec. 17, 2019. "We’re watching.”

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The Air Force isn't the only service involved in the intelligence and
surveillance activities, either. Aircraft spotter and friend of The War Zone
@AircraftSpots picked up on one flight involving an interesting U.S. Navy P-3C
Orion on Dec. 12.

P-3Cs assigned to Patrol Squadron 40 (VP-40), based at Naval Air Station Whidbey
Island in Washington, completed what had been the last operational deployment of
Orions assigned to a patrol squadron in November, but the aircraft remain in
service in more specialized roles. The aircraft flying over South Korea carries
the Bureau Number 161588.

In October, plane spotters caught this same aircraft at Kadena Air Base on the
Japanese island of Okinawa not wearing any particular unit markings and equipped
with an AN/APS-149 Littoral Surveillance Radar System (LSRS) mounted in a
gondola-shaped pod under the fuselage. Despite its name, the LSRS, which has
synthetic aperture and ground moving target indicator (GMTI) functionality, is
capable of intelligence gathering overland, as well.



more at
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...christmas-gift




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https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...w-modification

I'd say this is a clue.
Good old 844. I spent many hours on that plane in the Middle East.

--
Futility Man

In article , Futility Man says...

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...w-modification

I'd say this is a clue.
Good old 844. I spent many hours on that plane in the Middle East.



As the saying goes..."the great ones never lose it"



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On 18 Dec 2019 06:31:57 -0800, Miloch wrote:

As the saying goes..."the great ones never lose it"

Earlier this year I visited L3 in Greenville and was able to walk through
another RC that was being refitted. It was the first time I had been on an RC
since 1982. I doubt that there's a single nut, bolt, rivet, or wire inside the
skin that was the same. I was still able to sit in my seat and look out the
porthole over the right wing, but everything has changed. Even that has
changed. During the missions, there was no time to look out the window.

--
Futility Man