"Outdated Soviet aviation is kept in the ranks": the West assessed the state of the North Korean Air Force

The North Korean Air Force has an amazing ability to maintain many older types of combat aircraft in service. IISS in its next annual report states that their number exceeds 500 aircraft. However, these calculations are based on information on the supply of machines without taking into account their depreciation.

Considering that all types of aircraft have been in service for decades, losses due to accidents and damage inevitably lead to a reduction in their number.

- believes IISS columnist Joseph Dempsey, who used satellite images to roughly estimate the size of the working fleet of some types of combat vehicles of the DPRK Air Force.

When viewed from space at air bases, a large number of aircraft can be seen, including the first generation MiG-15 jet fighters and the smaller Su-25 attack aircraft and MiG-29 fighters. However, it is necessary to understand how many of them are in combat readiness.

Sungchon Air Force personnel can help with this. In connection with its reconstruction, the vehicles previously based here were transferred to new locations by April 2021. 12 MiG-29s (out of about 18 in service with the Air Force) and 31 Su-25s (out of a total of 34 units) were transferred to Pukchang. On this basis, Dempsey concludes that almost all Su-25s and two-thirds of the MiG-29s can be combat-ready.

Similarly, the number of Il-28 bombers and their Chinese counterparts N-5 can be estimated. About half of them were based at the Ouiju airbase, but as part of the fight against coronavirus, it was decided to use it to disinfect goods imported from the PRC. According to the observer, it is noteworthy that 32 bombers, whose age reached 60 years, flew to the new deployment locations.

The North Korean Air Force has shown great ingenuity and flexibility in maintaining many of the obsolete types of Soviet aviation […] Another question is, how long can this last

- concludes a Western observer, noting that North Korea is not able to produce its own aircraft.

Comments

[Jacket in stock]

This is called prudent use of available resources.

[Uncle lee]

Yes, it is hard for them to withstand the bourgeoisie!

[Jacket in stock]

Well, they still understand that on occasion the "elder brother" will again send his volunteers. And this brother has a lot of different airplanes, and there are so many more.

[vadim dok]

Especially now, when North Korea's imports from China have decreased by 84%., TASS reports!

[Bshkaus]

This is called prudent use of available resources.

It is called poverty!

[serg.shishkov2015]

Neighborhood MiG-15 and MiG-29 is cool! In other countries, this is only possible in museums and on the shelves of modelers! (I have a MiG-29 next to a MiG-17 and Su-25)

[tihonmarine]

Quote: serg.shishkov2015

Neighborhood MiG-15 and MiG-29 is cool! In other countries, this is only possible in museums and on the shelves of modelers! (I have a MiG-29 next to a MiG-17 and Su-25)

Amazing people, in our museums MIG-15 and they fly. I have been to the DPRK more than once, the Koreans have always surprised me.
Has anyone seen people dance in the morning before going to work. There is a playground near each house, music sounds and people dance. When we first saw this in front of our hotel, we just stood with our mouths open.

[Sancho_SP]

90% of what you saw near the hotel was shown to you on purpose.

[For example]

Quote: tihonmarine

Amazing people

The people there are the same as those to the south.

But the amazing hoopoe rules there.
He himself is buried in luxury, and around the slaves.

And if someone here on this site thinks differently sitting in an armchair and poking fingers into "bourgeois" gadgets, then this only confirms the correctness of my words.

Samsung, KIA, Hyundai, tankers and other ships of huge sizes - all this is the work of the same people, but free from the dynasty of ghouls.

[alekseykabanets]

Quote: For example ...

But the amazing hoopoe rules there.
He himself is drowning in luxury, and around the slaves ...

I would have seen how the Russian Federation would have coped with such sanctions.))))) What would our income level then be? The Korean leader will never grow to the level of luxury of our "hoopoes".))))
And by the way, where did you get the information about the luxury of the North Korean leader from what liberal trash heap?

[DymOk_v_dYmke]

Quote: Sancho_SP

90% of what you saw near the hotel was shown to you on purpose.

Window dressing, but few people understand that neither the people, nor even the beasts in captivity do not breed. And even less so they don't sing. The mentally deaf and blinkered these things, of course, will not get through.

[Bshkaus]

, but few people understand that neither the people, nor even the animals in captivity do not breed. And even more so they don't sing

I have to disagree: I have not met dancing bears in the wild, but in the circus many times. Moreover, if you follow your logic, then the only happy people on the planet are the North Koreans, because except for them, no one else dances in the morning.
And another question: why are you gloomy in the Russian Federation every morning on the subway to work, and not moved to North Korea?

[tihonmarine]

Quote: Sancho_SP

90% of what you saw near the hotel was shown to you on purpose.

And not only. We could walk everywhere, but accompanied.

[Ratmir_Ryazan]

North Korea needs to follow the path of China, allow entrepreneurship, put the ho yaba economy partially on a market track, and everything will play out. They have access to the sea, they have a fleet, they can trade with the whole world and develop.

[Israel]

On the path of China, this is primarily cooperation with the United States and access to the American market.

[iouris]

After a nuclear war, the North Koreans will become the most powerful military force.

[paul3390]

Well, under certain conditions, the IL-28 can also come in handy. It will definitely be enough for one flight. The Juche people are generally immensely tough - a country with the Leningrad Region, the people are figs and not a fig, nothing, for so many years they have been bent with all their might - but no, they do not break. And three-letter states are regularly sent ..

[Piramidon]

Quote: paul3390

in certain conditions, and the IL-28 may come in handy

As an attack aircraft, it is no worse than some "Embraer Super Tucano" used in some countries.

The most powerful and Svidomo army and then such begging for themselves.
And if you add armor to him ...

[Lara Croft]

Quote: Piramidon

As an attack aircraft, it is no worse than some "Embraer Super Tucano" used in some countries.

I dare to argue that the front-line jet bomber and the Tucano turboprop light attack aircraft have different performance characteristics and tasks ....

The Il-28 turned out to be a very difficult target for fighters. Training air battles with the MiG-15 and MiG-17 showed that it is very difficult to cope with the "twenty-eighth" fighter equipped only with cannons. When attacking from the front hemisphere, the high speed of convergence, combined with a relatively small sighting range and the need to take into account the possibility of two stationary NR-23 being hit by fire, left the MiG pilots no chance of success. The high speed and maneuverability of the Il-28, the presence of an effective stern defensive installation allowed their crews to successfully repel attacks from the rear hemisphere.

The divisions of bombers carrying nuclear weapons deployed along the western borders of the socialist camp looked to the "free world" as one of the incarnations of the Soviet threat. We must admit that there was something to be afraid of. IL-28 had a high chance of delivering their cargo to its destination.
IL-28 found wide distribution outside the USSR. They were in service with the Air Force or Navy of Algeria, Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, GDR, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Yemen, China, North Korea, Morocco, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Syria, Somalia, Finland, Czechoslovakia. The aircraft were built serially in the People's Republic of China and Czechoslovakia. In 50's a significant amount of IL-28 was supplied to China.

The Il-28 was used very effectively in Afghanistan. There he became almost the most "unbreakable" aircraft. These bombers, despite their venerable age, showed themselves at their best, demonstrating high reliability, survivability and accuracy of bomb strikes. Due to the presence of a stern rifle installation, the radio operator, when the aircraft exited the attack, did not allow the MANPADS operators to take positions convenient for launching missiles and did not allow the calculations of the barreled anti-aircraft installations to aim. How effective it was can be judged at least by the fact that not a single Afghan Il-28 was lost in the battles. Most of the "silts" were destroyed on the ground in January 1985, when bribed guards let the dushmans into the territory of the Shindand airbase.

The DPRK is the only country whose air force continues to use this aircraft created by 65 years ago.

https://topwar.ru/34511-frontovoy-bombardirovschik-il-28.html

On my own behalf, the KPA Air Force includes not only Il-28 front-line bombers, but also N-5T (Il-28T) naval torpedo bombers, which take on board 2-mm aircraft torpedoes or YU-450 jet aircraft torpedoes.

[Piramidon]

Ideas to convert the Il-28 into an attack aircraft have been around for a long time, and have even been implemented.

In the late 60s and early 70s. the aircraft experienced a short renaissance associated with attempts to revive ground attack aircraft in the Soviet Air Force. And although, as already noted, the Il-28Sh created in the OKB was not launched into the series, at the repair factories a number of bombers were converted into attack aircraft. According to eyewitnesses, in the early 70s. up to the regiment of such aircraft stood at the airfields of Khurba (DalVO) and Domna (ZabVO), during the overhaul they were converted into this version of the machines of the 7th FBAP and some other regiments.

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/bomber/il28.html

[Lara Croft]

Quote: Piramidon

Ideas to convert the Il-28 into an attack aircraft have been around for a long time, and have even been implemented.

Whoever he reincarnated into, especially when the Il-28 went under the knife at the suggestion of Khrushchev, many of them ended up in the Civil Air Fleet, but comparing it with a light turboprop attack aircraft is too much ...
Turboprop attack aircraft occupy a niche between jet aircraft and helicopters ... they are often used for counter-guerrilla actions ... therefore, in all countries, the Il-28 was used for its original purpose - a bomber ...

[hydrox]

At our a / b there was a whole regiment of Il-28 for cutting: before becoming a physicist, he was very fond of radio engineering and still stole a couple of airplane radios from the cockpit of a radio operator in order to listen to NHK from Okinawa.

[Old Michael]

during overhaul, they were converted into this version of the 7th FBAP and some other regiments

Stepan, good evening!
For reference.
The actual names of military formations are indicated:
- up to and including connection - in lowercase letters (7 fbap, and by no means the 7th fbap!);
- from union and above - in capital letters (forces and means 31 RA).
Please do not replicate illiteracy.
Best regards,
Michael

PS
Another bast in a row.
We were taught general tactics at the school by a very honored person, a war veteran, who in his 70-odd years retained good spirits and a lively mind. But when he heard the phrase "at fifteen zero zero", his face turned purple." At fifteen o'clock !!! 00 is on the closet door! "

[Piramidon]

Quote: OldMichael

Please do not replicate illiteracy.

I did not write anything from myself, but simply copied a quote from an article on a decent site "Corner of the Sky", in a known way (Ctrl + C - Ctrl + V). So you don't need to blame me for every imaginable sins. Apparently, I miss your meticulousness and corrosiveness.
PS By the way, the abbreviation of our regiment was used in writing both urgent and in capital letters - ODRAP and no one was ever indignant. You are the first.

[Old Michael]

no need to accuse me of every conceivable sins.

The reproach for illiteracy is not for you, but for the author of the text you quoted.

[NowaK]

Only the ignorant can call the Embraer Super Tucano "somehow"! ))) For its tasks, this attack aircraft is just ideal! In service with 17 countries! Including the United States. https://youtu.be/UFZP6LjYJ5Q

[Piramidon]

Quote: NowaK

Only the ignorant can call the Embraer Super Tucano "somehow"! ))) For its tasks, this attack aircraft is just ideal! In service with 17 countries! Including the United States. https://youtu.be/UFZP6LjYJ5Q

Agree, "somehow" and "somehow" differ in meaning.

[Anatole Klim]

Quote: paul3390

And three-letter states are regularly sent ..

The North Koreans have opted for the creation of atomic weapons and missiles to deliver them. For a poor country, there is simply not enough money for conventional weapons, but the choice turned out to be the right one, having an atomic bomb and missiles, you can send the States

[ycuce234-san]

Most likely, they can easily abandon aviation altogether - simply because they see historical lessons - the Afghans have successfully used MANPADS and the Vietnamese anti-aircraft missiles. Therefore, they will establish a mass production of such simple means when the resource of complex and expensive aircraft runs out. If the Chinese decide to supply microcircuits, they will also have their own drones.

[Jager]

With the current level of electronics, converting old jet planes into drones is not such a big deal.

[ycuce234-san]

These will be expensive devices to maintain. And simple mass rocket and mine equipment can be stored in warehouses for a very long time with minimal equipment and costs, and even modernized by replacing firmware and brains, powder bills. Therefore, the line of its simple MANPADS, ATGM, torpedoes, mines, maybe guided shells, anti-radar missiles. Well, SK does not have its own radio electronics, more precisely, it does, but these are rather separate packaged radioelements and the simplest transistor microcircuits, as in the 1950s - otherwise there would be no radio broadcasting in this country. And since it exists, that is, at least radio centers with terrestrial equipment in settlements, then broadcasting to loudspeakers via a wired network; Surely, their wired telephony is no longer electromechanical, but semiconductor (stations and home telephones on separate packaged transistors of local production) - someday collectors and museums will chase old stationary home telephones of their production. In general, they have an "Electronics Factory named after May 11", which periodically tries to make presentations of local smartphones, PDAs, tablets - but this is unlikely to go further than concepts on a third-party element base. But there is an HMI industrial computer for metallurgy, energy, etc. - that is, independence from other countries, which has just begun to be created in the Russian Federation.

[Israel]

The United States can be sent without an atomic bomb, Iran, Venezuela and many people, only neighbors around the DPRK such as China, Taiwan, the South Caucasus, Japan, Singapore just show that living for the sake of sending the United States is not the best option for the country, in while cooperation with the United States has a positive effect on the development of the country.

[Reviews]

Quote: paul3390

Well, under certain conditions, the IL-28 can also come in handy.

The only type of aircraft that did not have any combat losses during Afgan, moreover, in the hands of the aborigines. The spooks used a rather effective technique: after the passing of the attacking plane, they rose and released the "stinger" in pursuit. But the tail gunner of the Il-28 did not allow them to do this. Neither the Su-25, nor the Su-24 and Mi-24 had such an opportunity. :(

[Sergey Yar]

Well done, they treat the technique with care and diligence, and as for the old, it is not yet known who will win the battle, the Korean pilot or the amerikos.

[Hypertension]

Quote: Sergey Yar

Well done, they are careful and diligent about technology

You might think they have a choice. Nobody (even the Russian Federation) will give them modern aircraft for free, and there is nothing to buy. So any bolt on the farm will come in handy.

[cat Rusich]

Quote: Sergey Yar

Well done, they treat the technique with care and diligence, and as for the old, it is not yet known who will win the battle, the Korean pilot or the amerikos.

Can you hear yourself?
Will you agree to go into battle with a Berdan gun in a bayonet attack on a machine gun?
Remember the Crimean War of 1853-56 ...
RIA was armed with carefully and carefully preserved SMOOTH GUNS and GUNSand the fleet was SAILING - We (Russia) were able to break the OI, but when the fleet of Britain and France approached ... read the history textbook.
Outdated technique is good at PEACEFUL TIME.

[Revolver]

The Koreans did not perform well, even when the Americans flew comparable F-86s. The Air Force division was brought there for a reason, it was much easier for the Koreans to deliver the planes, but it was immediately clear that it was not working.

[Herman 4223]

They wrote down two hundred American planes at their own expense.

[Aviator_]

Koreans were not very productive,

Where did they get with the Chinese in 1950-53, if then, even in our country, they had just begun to train pilots for the MiG-15?

[poquello]

"The North Korean Air Force has an amazing ability to maintain many older types of combat aircraft in service."
I wonder what kind of modernization of these models is going on?

[datura23]

the blades have one of the characteristics - the throwing area

[hwostatij]

Does it really make sense in the combat use of the subsonic MiG-15, not even equipped with a radar?

[Lara Croft]

Quote: Hwostatij

Does it really make sense in the combat use of the subsonic MiG-15, not even equipped with a radar?

The Azerbaijanis found the use of the "maize" in the last conflict with the RA for the NKR, in the KPA Air Force there were 200 such aircraft .... aircraft older than the MiG-15 and about 300 in warehouses, which part of them will be used as UAVs, one God knows ...

[cat Rusich]

Quote: Lara Croft

The Azerbaijanis found the use of the "corn plant" in the last conflict with the RA over the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Azerbaijan fought with the NKR army - army Armenia did not participate in battles ...
For an example of obsolescence of technology -
Almost all readers and commentators on VO are sure of the need to put KAZ on tanks, imagine that the tanks of the Russian army will not even have DZ ...
Do you agree with such a "prudent saving of technology"?

[hwostatij]

You can fight the Papuans and the cornmen, but they will not resist the DPRK.

[MakStVik]

How old is the B-52? Have cornered the North Koreans, what else can they do?

[Slobodskoy]

In fact, no one is going to attack the DPRK, it is simply not necessary for anyone. What's the point, for what? To take on the millions of unfortunate zombie people who have a very distant idea of ​​what is happening in the world? And why didn't they attack while they have There was no nuclear weapons? It appeared not so long ago. This inadequate regime is simply feared, as they fear a gopnik with a grenade. But in general, everything suits everyone, let there be such a reserve. And after the visit of the American AUG, the fat man abruptly stopped nuclear tests ( but among Juche lovers, he still "sends" Americans), but more is not needed.

[Herman 4223]

North Korea is not attacked primarily because they have China and Russia in their neighbors. Tech and server volunteers will make the military conflict unpredictable.
This is generally ridiculous:
"To take on the millions of unfortunate zombie people who have a very distant idea of ​​what is happening in the world?"
Nobody will care, this is the market for their goods.

[Slobodskoy]

You do not quite understand what I mean. When Germany was united, the Aussies were very lagging behind the Vesti in all respects, and it was not easy for Germany to integrate them. at least prepare for life in the modern world. Therefore, no one attacks, it is simply not necessary for anyone.

[Slobodskoy]

"Vessey", of course - the auto editor fixes it.

[Herman 4223]

You are a naive person. Again ! Nobody cares about the people living there! Nobody will take care of them. They integrate or die, that's their problem. Nobody will bother. This is just a market for goods of twenty million people and a territory. And this territory has not been captured only due to the neighborhood with Russia and China.

[Slobodskoy]

What is the sales market there? Where will they get the money, because they are only suitable for the most primitive jobs, the bulk of them at least. The costs of their integration will be simply enormous. Such happiness of the Republic of Kazakhstan is completely unnecessary, despite the declared desire to “unite”. who wants to capture it? South Korea? So in 1950 the DPRK attacked the ROK, and not vice versa.

[Herman 4223]

There will be no integration costs. Whoever succeeds is to get out. The sales market is always where there are people. There will be cheap labor, something will start working thanks to this. Something useful will be left behind. The rest will survive.

[Aviator_]

after all, they are suitable only for the most primitive works,

You noticed this well. The turbines for the Nizhne-Bureyskaya hydroelectric power station were actually bought in the DPRK already at GDP.

[Israel]

"To take on the millions of unfortunate zombie people who have a very distant idea of ​​what is happening in the world?"
Nobody will care, this is the market for their goods.

For server Koreans to become an attractive market, their standard of living must be significantly higher than it is now, not to mention what it might be after the war. But what they could offer is a cheap qualified labor force, taking as a basis the secondary and higher education of the USSR (according to the Korean studies professor Lankov) in the DPRK the level of engineers and workers is not bad. But in this case, probably, China will not be very likely if Western corporations begin to withdraw their production from China to the DPRK.

[Kostadinov]

Quote: Slobodskoy

In fact, no one is going to attack the DPRK, it is simply not necessary for anyone.

And who needs to beat Afghanistan, or Bosna, or Kosovo?
The DPRK has already been attacked once by the United States and now only nuclear weapons interfere with the attack.
They cannot rely on China and Russia - they will look from afar and sympathize.

[Kostadinov]

Quote: Ratmir_Ryazan

North Korea must follow the path of China

China will have to follow the path of the DPRK - the United States has already pointed to China as the main enemy and will inevitably throw sanctions.

[Kostadinov]

Quote: iouris

After a nuclear war, the North Koreans will become the most powerful military force.

As long as the North Koreans have nuclear weapons, there will be no war there.

[Kostadinov]

concludes a Western observer, noting that North Korea is not able to produce its own aircraft.

Western observers do not need to worry about the DPRK Air Force.
The DPRK produces aircraft for light aircraft, An-2, helicopters, everything for the repair and modernization of its combat aircraft (including the MiG-29) and, most importantly, drones of all kinds.