South Korean Navy Engages the North

As Bryan noted yesterday morning, the South Korean Navy and the North Korean Navy had a bit of a border skirmish at sea yesterday morning. Early reporting isn't always accurate, but there are already some interesting details worth noting.

From what has been reported in the press, we know that a South Korean Chamsuri class patrol vessel engaged an unidentified North Korean patrol boat in a gun battle. The sequence of events leading up to the shooting goes something like this.

At 11:27 a.m, the North Korean patrol boat violated the NLL, venturing south of the disputed sea border. The South Korean Navy issued three verbal warnings to the North Korean ship beginning at 11:22 a.m. after noticing that the patrol boat was crossing the NLL.

After waiting a few minutes, the South Korean Navy issued two more warnings as the Norht Korean vessel moved more than a kilometer passed the NLL. At 11:37 a.m the South Korean Navy vessel fired warning shots about 10 minutes later, to which the North immediately responded. The battle immediately erupted at around 11:37 a.m. near Baegryeong Island and lasted about 2 minutes.

The South took about 15 shots from the North, which fired 50 rounds. The South responded with around 100 rounds, and the North Korean vessel fled back across the NLL reportedly after taking heavy damage and on fire. Unconfirmed reports suggest the North had 1 killed and 3 wounded in the engagement. There was no one injured on the South.

As one might expect, tensions are high after the incident, and the South has sent two more patrol boats to the border area this morning.

A few observations.

The North responded to warning shots as if they were an attack. This could mean they were looking for a fight under any conditions, but could also mean there is a training issue with the North Korean Navy and they simply didn't know the difference between warning shots and the real thing. The North Korean Navy doesn't exactly have modern equipment nor is it well trained, while the South Korean Navy has both modern equipment and is one of the best trained Navy's in the world.

Even though the North and South are technically at war, and have been for decades, rules of engagement still played a key factor in this fight. 5 verbal warnings, then warning shots, before engagement. The South Korean JCS said something about the fight not being at close range, but the Chamsuri class patrol vessel only has two Bofors 40mm guns as a main weapon, probably L/70 (a guess, don't have my books with me and correct me if I'm wrong) which have a max range out to around 5 miles. In fights within 5 miles of a target at sea, are helicopters more or less vulnerable as littoral strike platforms?

Modern littoral warfare is no more or less different than littoral warfare for the last several centuries, as it still comes down to who fires effectively first and usually, whose gun is more effective. For me, this is yet another example where the lessons of littoral warfare highlight that protection from missiles (Stealth/RCS) is secondary to protection from guns at visual range (armor), and crossing the T is hardly out of style because bringing the most guns to bear on target is still critical to winning these kinds of fights.

Before pointing out that Standard Missiles, ESSMs, or Harpoons would work in this situation, check your chart first, and someone tell me which Admiral, or Captain, is sending a large warship into those waters during periods of potential hostility. South Korea has major naval assets, and you will not find them in those waters. Someone tell me what ship the US Navy would use in waters like these, which are found everywhere around the world. When giving it serious thought, I think we either need a lot more armed USVs, or need to rethink our approach to littoral warfare. This thing was over in 2 minutes, way too late for air support.

There are always political intentions behind these kinds of incidents, but it looks like local control for escalation was given to the South Korean CO of the patrol boat. While it is unclear whether the North was looking to create an incident, even as everyone has been predicting one would happen (STRATFOR, NIGHTWATCH, etc), that warning shots were responded to directly as a sign of hostility is important. After all, North Korean isn't the only aggressive Navy in the world with poor training.