South Korea Hands Over Depleted Uranium Rounds for Shipment Back to the U.S.
It looks like there will be a little bit less depleted uranium in South Korea:
South Korea has handed over some 1.1 million rounds of potentially hazardous ammunition stored here for decades to the U.S. military for shipment to the United States, a ruling party lawmaker said Monday.
The country’s Air Force recently sent the depleted uranium ammunition to the U.S. 7th Air Force based in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, to ship them to the U.S. by sea by mid-April, according to Democratic Party Rep. Kim Jin-pyo.
Under a 1975 arrangement with the U.S., the South had stored the ammunition in a military airport in Suwon, just south of Seoul. The arrangement had long been plagued by public concerns about its potential radiation risks.
It remains unknown how that arrangement was brought about.
The ammunition is known to have been created to mount on A-10 anti-tank aircraft.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
North Korea threatens to attack South Korea so let’s move our best ammo back to the States.
Is the percentage of transsexuals in leadership rolls at goal yet?
Deterrent must evolve with the times.
Of course, given how poorly newer Rooskie tanks have done in recent months, the RoK might just assume the museum pieces run by the parasite army would have trouble making it to Paju even without anyone shooting at them
idiots in charge.
That’s too bad; DU rounds go through Russian designed tanks like a 50 caliber round through butter.
Also people who complain about the radiation threat don’t understand radiation. You are sitting in it every day.
Complaining a out radiation with a cell phone next to their face…
I think people are blowing this thing way out of proportion.
The Suwon AB is slated to be decommissioned so it would be logical for the ROKAF to hand back ammunition that originally belongs to the USAF.
As for the ammo itself, the Military Sealift Command keeps two US flagged container ships with prepositioned ammuniton for the USAF off the coast of S. Korea.
If there is space for the 30 or so containers required for storing that ammunition, they can put them on those ships since the ammunition in question look like they are prepositioned stocks.
https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/Ships/Ship-Inventory/Air-Force-Containers/
If the above happens and someone decides to make a fuss then the Korean defense ministry can say that the ammunition has been ‘ shipped to the US by sea’, because as soon as those containers touch the deck, they are on US soil and they would be out at sea.
Of course if the ammo is past its shelf life then yeah probably good idea to ship it back to the US for recycling or destruction.
As for the DPK politician in question, I think he is just trying to score points and put his name on something that probably had already been decided between the two air forces regardless of the environmental issues.
TOK, here is a question I don’t know the answer to.
Is ammo safer in a know but hardened location on land…
…or a semi-unknown location at sea?
Are such ships sitting ducks worse than on land? Or are they well-protected?
Normally, I would just trust that the military kinda knows what they are doing… but I see less and less evidence of this every year.
Well CH,
Since you put it that way, if the ammo is in a hardened location in a well known air base, it’s a big fat fixed target known to the one with the missiles.
If it’s on a ship, yes it’s a big fat target, but it’s moving around, and once it turns off its AIS, it will be very difficult to track unless you know where to look for and have 24 hour surveillance on that area.
Hmmm.
So this is pretty much what you would do if you expected upcoming trouble on the pen and you wanted to store your ammo somewhere safer.
The moment they pull the best jets off for exercises with Japan or training on Guam and leave only the hanger queens, I think I will be looking more closely at my Plan B.
Well CH,
Talk of shutting down Suwon AB has been ongoing for seven years or so.
But there is no schedule however the jets that call Suwon AB home are the F-4E Phantoms and F-5E/Fs that are on the way out which means the only reason for Suwon AB’s existence is as a collection center for to be retired fighter jets.
Which also means, the ROKAF are probably slowly preparing for the day when the airbase is handed over to the Gyeonggi Provincial Government.
So to put it simply. you are panicking and being concerned about nothing.
“So to put it simply. you are panicking and being concerned about nothing.”
Ha! That’s what they told me when I said it looked like covid is here to stay, politically if not epidemiologically.
…and here we are… in the third year of two weeks to flatten the curve and getting ready to get the 4th shot of Two Shots and Back to Normal.
When the risk profile is disproportionate, I error on the side of concern.
Storing food is a good example.
If something goes wrong, I don’t want to be waiting in line for 2 hours with angry hungry frightened people to buy the last package off off-brand raman.
If nothing goes wrong, I have just made an easy 10% on my money by avoiding food inflation.
I have NEVER said, “Gosh, I was too prepared.”
I have frequently said, “Didn’t need it but glad I had it… and I made money on it too!”
I have sometimes said, “Glad I had that shìt on lockdown.”
I see no downside in pretending NK might cause some trouble (something less than an invasion) that causes disorder in SK… and preparing for that financially and logistically.
But watching the inglorious end of the Afghanistan debacle followed by the Biden regime doing its best to start WW3, I don’t really trust American military or diplomacy to make good decisions… or even take care of itself… and certainly not take care of me.
So I will base my decisions on the world not just going to hell in a rowboat but actually having a couple of outboard motors on the back and I will look out for myself.
If all is well… I have lost nothing.
Depleted uranium actually makes a good radiation SHIELD. It is used to protect people FROM radiation.
Depleted uranium actually makes a good radiation SHIELD.
True.
But as per your cherry picking and misinformational habits you forgot this
in the light of costs and regulatory issues regarding disposal of “radioactive” material, hospitals or industries that use such devices may opt for buying devices that do not contain DU.
https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q8929.html
Why do we even use depleted uranium rounds?
Enriched uranium weighs about the same and the enemy won’t forget where they went wrong for at least 700 million years.
Is there some sort of military tipline I can call to claim my award?