Defense of the United States from Foreign Invasion
Matthew Netardus
Point of Invasion and Nation Invading-
In determining the defense tactic that would be used to defend the United States from invasion, one must consider the point of attack as a prime variable. In this book we will not discuss all of the pointless options of third world nations invading, as these invasions would be dismissed easily with a purely military standoff. Instead we will focus in on the most likely aggressors; Russia, China, and North Korea. In the event of an invasion by the noted nations, there is only one nation that could choose which coast to invade, Russia. In that case, Russia could chose to take the hard route through Europe, solidify its positions against attack from the United States, and then construct or move its fleet to perform an invasion on our east coast. All of the other nations would have to invade the West Coast, or face extreme naval attack as the attempt to almost circumnavigate the world, which would give the world plenty of time to destroy the invading fleet, or starve it of its supply’s. Therefore, the most likely points of invasion would be near major cities, as this would force a major battle, and provide the most supply’s possible for looting after the taking of the city. Therefore, the possible landing points could be specified to- San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, Anchorage, or Valdez. These cities would provide the best area possible for unloading supply’s from the incoming ships after the docks have been taken and repaired. They would also have abundant supply’s inside the cities themselves in places like malls, supermarkets, hardware stores, and factory’s that could be plundered to provide the army with spare parts, vehicles, and food. In the very unlikely situation that Russia invades through Europe, and then to the Unites States, possible landing points would be Washington D.C., Jacksonville, Norfolk, New York, Boston, and many other port cities. However, invading Europe would exhaust the Russian army, and there navy would have to endure repeated attacks from Britain’s RNAF, unless Britain was also neutralized, and the United States Navy. This case would be unlikely, and therefore easy to defend against, although the re-conquest of Europe would be quite difficult.
North Korea-
Overview-
With an invasion from North Korea, there would be a high possibility of nuclear and biological attacks pre-empting the main invasion. The possibility of invasion would not be as clear as it would for the other nations however, as North Korea is situated geologically so that it would not have to move its army far to board the invasion ships. In all likelihood though, an invasion of South Korea would happen first. In this case, it would be best for the United States to head off invasion by stopping the North Koreans in Korea. This would be quite hard however, as there are few troops stationed in South Korea, and any form of nuclear or biological attack could quickly neutralize any standing forces or soldiers, as long range artillery could decimate most cities, while mechanized forces swept quickly into South Korea to mop up the survivors and claim the land for North Korea. In this case, the Unites States would be most benefited to quickly move at least 2 of its nuclear carrier groups to the base in Japan, and stop any naval force from exiting into the main body of the Pacific. This would also be hard however if North Korea had already resorted to weapons of mass destruction, as they would not feel bad at all about nuking all major ports in Japan, and therefore eliminating all docked ships as well as any chance of the US using those ports to harass the North Korean navy. This case would present a unique situation. It is very likely that the North Koreans do not have nuclear weapons that have the range to reach Pearl Harbor, so a logical choice of naval bases would be there. Out of the way of nuclear bombs and missiles, the carrier task forces could then prepare to stop any excursion by the North Korean navy. Any invasion by North Korea would obviously be preempted by a massive buildup of their mechanized forces, and especially their navy, with possible leases or purchases of Chinese or Russian fighters. The recent acquisition of MiG-29 fighter jets, and advanced tanks lead to increased suspicions of the enhanced North Korean army being used to gain more territory. There is military industry in North Korea, and it has annual production capacity for 200,000 AK automatic guns, 3,000 heavy guns, 200 battle tanks, 400 armored cars and amphibious crafts. North Korea makes its own submarines, landing drafts, high-speed missile-boats, and other types of warships. Home-made weaponry makes it possible for North Korea to maintain a large military force on a shoestring budget. North Korea has 17 plants for guns and artillery, 35 plants for ammunition, 5 plants for tanks and armored cars, 8 plants for airplanes, 5 plants for warships, 3 plants for guided missiles, 5 plants for communication equipment, and 8 plants for biochemical warheads - 134 plants in total. In addition, many plants that make consumer products are designed so that they can be made to produce military items with minimum modification. About 180 of defense related plants are built underground in the rugged mountainous areas of Jagang-do. Several small to medium hydro-power plants serve these plants so that it would be nearly impossible for the US to cut off power to the plants. This would make it very hard for the US to intervene in a military re-armament. It would also complicate things during a war with North Korea, making it hard to restrict the production of military goods that would flow into the US after the initial landings. While it is obvious that one cannot discount the industrial capabilities of North Korea, one also cannot discount the preparedness of their armed forces. North Korea's regular army is for offensive actions whereas its militias are homeland defense. North Korea's regular army consists of 4 corps in the front area, 8 corps in the rear area, one tank corps, 5 armored corps, 2 artillery corps, and 1 corps for the defense of Pyongyang, South Korea has 19 infantry divisions whereas North Korea has 80 divisions. A North Korean infantry division has 3 infantry regiments, 1 artillery regiment (3 battalions of 122 mm rocket launchers and 1 battalion of 152 mortars), one tank battalion of 31 tanks, one anti-tank battalion, one anti-aircraft battalion, one engineer battalion, one communication battalion, one light-infantry battalion, one recon battalion, and one chemical warfare battalion. North Korea's militias consist of 1.6 million self-defense units, 100,000 people's guards, 3.9 million workers militia, and 900,000 youth guard units. These militias are tasked to defend the homeland. The militias are fully armed and undergo military trainings regularly. They also have considerable artillery corps. North Korea has 2 artillery corps and 30 artillery brigades equipped with 120mm self-propelled guns, 152mm self-propelled mortars, 170mm guns with a range of 50 km, 240 mm multiple rocket launchers with a range of 45 km, and other heavy guns. North Korea has about 18,000 heavy guns. North Korea's 170mm Goksan gun and 240mm multiple-tube rocket launchers are the most powerful guns in the world. These guns can lob shells as far south as Suwon miles beyond Seoul. The big guns are hidden in caves. Many of them are mounted on rails and can fire in all directions. They can rain 500,000 conventional and biochemical shells per hour on US troops near the DMZ. The US army bases at Yijong-bu, Paju, Yon-chun, Munsan, Ding-gu-chun, and Pochun would be obliterated in a matter of hours. During the invasion of South Korea, North Korea is ideally situated to commence the invasion with very little notice, as the bulk of North Korea's mechanized and tank units are positioned to cross the DMZ at a moment's notice and run over the US and South Korean defenders. The attackers would be aided by SU-25 attack planes and attack helicopters. In addition, North Korea has 600 high-speed landing crafts, 140 hovercrafts, and 3,000 K-60 and other pontoon bridges for river-crossing. North Korea has 700,000 troops, 8,000 heavy guns, and 2,000 tanks placed in more than 4,000 hardened bunkers within 150 km of the DMZ. There is also the unique skill of tunnel warfare, as North Korea is the world’s most-tunneled nation. North Korea's expertise in digging tunnels for warfare was demonstrated during the Vietnam War. North Korea sent about 100 tunnel warfare experts to Vietnam to help dig the 250 km tunnels for the North Vietnamese and Viet Gong troops in South Vietnam. The tunnels were instrumental in the Vietnamese victory. North Korea's army runs on company-size units. Tunnel warfare is conducted by independent company-size units. Tunnel entrances are built to withstand US chemical and biological attacks. Tunnels run zig-zag and have seals, air-purification units, and safe places for the troops to rest. It is believed that North Korea has built about 20 large tunnels near the DMZ. A large tunnel can transport 15,000 troops per hour across the DMZ and place them behind the US troops. North Korea also has proficient special forces, as it has the largest special forces, 120,000 troops, in the world. These troops are grouped into light infantry brigades, attack brigades, air-borne brigades, and sea-born brigades - 25 brigades in total. These troops would be tasked to attack US military installations in Korea, Japan, Okinawa and Guam. North Korea has the capacity to transport 20,000 special force troops at the same time as it has 130 high-speed landing crafts and 140 hovercrafts. A North Korean hovercraft can carry one platoon of troops at 90 km per hour. Western experts downplay North Korea's ancient AN-2 transport planes as 1948 relics, but AN-2 planes can fly low beneath US radars and deliver up to 10 troops at 160 km per hour. North Korea makes AN-2s and has about 300 in place. In addition, North Korea has hang-gliders that can carry 5-20 men each for short hops. North Korea has developed special bikes for mountain warfare. Special Forces use these bikes for fast deployments on mountains. Switzerland is the only other nation that has bike-mounted Special Forces trained for mountain warfare. The rugged terrains of the Korean Peninsula are ideally suited for Special Forces operations. How good are North Korea's Special Forces? In September 1996, a North Korean submarine was stranded near Kang-nung and the crew was forced to abandon the ship and land on South Korea. The sub had two Special Forces agents who had finished a mission in South Korea and were picked up by the sub before the sub ran into a rock. The two men fought off an army of South Korean troops and remained at large for 50 days, during which they killed 11 of the pursuers. North Korea also has a fairly good fleet, especially if they could engage the US fleet in close combat. North Korea has two fleets - the West Fleet and the East Fleet. The West Fleet has 6 squadrons of 320 ships and the East Fleet has 10 squadron of 460 ships. The navy has a total manpower of 46,000. North Korean ships are sheltered from US attacks in about 20 bunkers of 200-900 m long and 14-22 m wide. North Korean ships are small and agile, designed for coastal defense. North Korean ships carry 46km range ship-to-ship missiles and 22-channel multiple rocket launchers. The main enemy of the North Korean navy will be US carrier task forces. The Russian navy has developed a tactic to deal with US carriers task forces: massive simultaneous missile attacks. In addition, Russia has developed the anti-carrier missile, "jun-gal”, which can destroy a carrier. China has developed similar tactics for destroying US carriers. On April 1, 2003, North Korea test-fired a high-speed ground-to-ship missile of 60km range. A US carrier task force of Nimitz class has 6,000 men, 70 planes, and a price tag of 4.5 billion dollars. Destroying even a single career task force will be traumatic. A carrier is protected by a shield of 6 Aegis destroyers and nuclear attack submarines. An Aegis destroyer has an AN/SPY-1 high-capacity radar system that can track more than 100 targets at the same time. An Aegis can fire about 20 anti-missile missiles at the same time. Thus, a career force can track a total of 600 targets at a time and fire 120 anti-missile missiles at the same time. The anti-missile missiles have about 50% success under ideal conditions. In actual battle situations, the hit rate will be much lower and the best estimate is that the Aegis shield can intercept at most 55 incoming missiles. Therefore, a volley of about 60 missiles and rockets will penetrate the Aegis shield and hit the career. North Korea acquired OSA and KOMAR high-speed missile boats in 1968, and began to build its own missile boats in 1981. It has more than 50 missile boats, each equipped with 4 missiles of 46km range and multiple rocket launchers. In addition, North Korea has about 300 speed boats, 200 torpedo boats and 170 other gunboats. In case of war, North Korea's small crafts and submarines would swarm around US career task forces and destroy them. The North Korean air force would be the critical decision point. In the war over Korea, the US air force would have problems engaging the enemy, as the small area of combat would lead the winners to be decided by machine gun usage, which the North Koreans are slightly more trained on, and, in addition, the North Korean strategy involves hugging the enemy aircraft as to eliminate the use of advanced American missiles. However, once North Korea invades the mainland US, all fighters would have been recalled from foreign bases, and there would be massed forces of aircraft meeting the invaders carrier born forces. The US air force and navy would both swarm enemy fighters, and using advanced long range missiles, eliminate the enemy air force therefore allowing close support of ground forces un-molested from enemy aircraft. Electronic warfare is another area in which the US clearly dominates, as there are no equals to the US when it comes to electronic warfare. However, North Korea has started an electronic warfare program, and has focused on neutralizing US electronic capabilities instead of using offensive electronic warfare. North Korea began developing its own electronic warfare methods in 1970. It is believed that North Korea has advanced electronic warfare ability. It has numerous counter measures for US electronic warfare. During the recent war in Iraq, the US dropped e-bombs that disabled the Iraqi electronic devices. North Korea relies heavily on non-electronic command and control means, and hence US e-bombs will have limited impacts in North Korea. North Korea trains about 100 hackers a year and has computer virus battalions in place. These hackers are capable of interrupting US communication networks. Political resolve is also accounted for in deciding whether or not North Korea would face down the US. While China and Russia both have larger and possibly better military’s then North Korea, the threat from these nations is much less because they lack the political resolve that North Korea has in abundance. The leader of North Korea has conducted a massive covert plan aimed to make the world think that he is “crazy” enough to use nuclear weapons on a whim, when in fact he would obviously not be benefited by doing so. The more dangerous part of North Koreas military would be its conventional forces, and the resolve that they show. Part of the reason for easy success in Iraq has been the low moral of enemy soldiers. They simply abandoned their vehicles and weapons when faced with overwhelming US forces. Even when faced with entire battalions bearing down on the, the crew of the submarine that was beached on South Korea fought until the end, some of their crew (notably the Special Forces men inside) even evaded South Korean forces for a prolonged period of time in which 11 more South Korean soldiers were killed. The US has not underestimated the military capabilities of North Korea however, as the 2000 Report to Congress on the Military Situation on the Korean Peninsula clearly shows. In this report, it clearly states that continued support of the US military garrison in South Korea is necessary for the maintenance of the independence of the Republic of South Korea. A comparison on the extreme variation on the size of the North Korean army and the South Korean army is obvious, and the only thing that keeps the north at bay is the presence of American soldiers. Without American soldiers on southern soil, it would only be a matter of a single phone call from the dictator of the North to end the independence of the South. With the exception of naval personnel, and the helicopter service, the north outnumbers the south on every division of military power; and when they add in the power of experience and technology, the north loses no ground, as its forces could hold a one on one with the forces of the south. National Intelligence has estimated the power of the north’s military and several other aspects of the nation, including doctrine, economy, military strength, and several other sub-sets of national power. Key in the data is the testimonies of important North Korean defectors. One important fact in these testimonies is the absolute overconfidence of the rulers of North Korea. They have only stockpiled and siphoned enough resources, for the border forces of North Korea, for 6 months of fighting in the south before the rest of the north’s forces move in and re-supply their southern divisions with more supply’s and shore up the defenses for the likely counter-attack by UN forces. Even though there are serious logistical concurs that the North Korean’s must rectify in order to successfully capture the south, it would not lead to the South Korean’s being able to defend themselves, as a paper by an editor in g2mil said. The North Korean’s have the ability to shape up their economy very quickly, and to form peaceful alliances once again with Russia and China while persuading them to donate supplies. The North Korean threat is quite real and possibly the most dangerous of the three.
Industry-
North Korean industry is not situated in the same way as the industry in the US. The North Korean industry is more geared towards protected infrastructure. Instead of steady large output, the industry is more geared towards a steady low output low cost low labor but it is capable of great spurts of immense output. This would come in handy for maintaining low operation costs, but having the ability to surge production in times of need, say, during a war. This gives the North Koreans the ability to stage a quick rearmament just before the onset of hostility’s. The North Koreans also have many factories that have the ability to convert from civilian goods to military hardware. There is considerable military industry in North Korea, and it has annual production capacity of 200,000 AK automatic guns, 3,000 heavy guns, 200 battle tanks, 400 armored cars and amphibious crafts. North Korea makes its own submarines, landing drafts, high-speed missile-boats, and other types of warships. Home-made weaponry makes it possible for North Korea to maintain a large military force on a shoestring budget. North Korea has 17 plants for guns and artillery, 35 plants for ammunition, 5 plants for tanks and armored cars, 8 plants for airplanes, 5 plants for warships, 3 plants for guided missiles, 5 plants for communication equipment, and 8 plants for biochemical warheads - 134 plants in total. In addition, many plants that make consumer products are designed so that they can be made to produce military items with minimum modification. About 180 of the defense related plants are built underground in the rugged mountainous areas of Jagang-do. Several small to medium hydro-power plants serve these plants so that it would be nearly impossible for the US to cut off power to the plants. The north also has an impressively absolute government, so they could easily conscript many peasants into hard labor in the factory’s, and the peasants would not be effected overtly if some consumer goods became unavailable, they are experts at dealing with what they have and would therefore make it through the massive rearmament period with little to no hardship.
Politics-
The political situation in North Korea is as complex as their industrial situation. The dictatorship is firmly in control of the nation, but the individual peasants are facing unheard of hardships daily. A lack of food and everyday consumer products has driven much of the north’s population into subsistence living. There have been many riots, many over the prices of food, but the riots have never resulted in a threat to the nation’s political balance. Ina time of war, North Korea’s dictator knows that he would have to give certain concessions to the peasants in return for unwavering loyalty. The foreign relations chapter in North Korea could also be improved on, but is not at a point that makes it impossible for a return to peaceful relations with, and even an alliance with both China and Russia
