On: Pierre Sprey on the F-35 [video]

[willvarfar]

Surely South Korea ought to by cruise missiles?

[danudey → willvarfar]

$1.4m per strike probably isn't really cost-effective for smaller countries that aren't spending trillions on their military.

[willvarfar → danudey]

Actually, its way cheaper than sending a jet to fly overtop to deliver the 'bunker buster'. And you can hit as many targets as you have missiles.

[notastartup → willvarfar]

US doesn't want an arms race in the region so they limited South Korea to 800km range ballistic missiles with a limited payload.

So they started developing the Hyunmoo series. The Hyunmoo-3c has a range of 1500km, it is domestically built unlike the previous Hyunmoo missiles which were actually old Nike missiles from 1950s. It's interesting that South Korean engineers added a slot for carrying nuclear warheads (possibly had plans to develop nuclear weapons at some point in the 1970s).

Cruise missiles don't give the same power projection like a ballistic missile tipped with nuclear warhead. It can be intercepted which limits it's reach.

[willvarfar → notastartup]

This doesn't gel with my understanding of the subject.

NK is predominantly rocket salvo and shell artillery. This may be basic tech, but its very effective militarily.

Cruise missiles are damn difficult to intercept. And for each plane with "bunker buster" dumb bombs, you can buy a salvo of very clever bunker-busting cruise missiles which don't have to bring their pilot home after.