South & North Korea’s capitals are just
120 miles apart, with Seoul within 35 miles
of the border.
Covering only about 12% of the country's area,
the Seoul Capital Area is home to more than
48.2% of the national population, and is the
world's third largest urban area.
Seoul is populated with 25 million people.
Most of the North’s artillery pieces—numbering
in the thousands—are already in place camouflaged
and dug in, some being very close to the border.
Commonly referred to by the nicknames “Warthog”
or “Hog” The A-10 was designed for close
air support (CAS) of friendly ground troops,
attacking armored vehicles , artillery pieces,
and providing quick-action support against
enemy ground forces.
Hence, the Warthog is expected to play a major
part if any conflict starts between U.S &
North Korea.
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes IF
THE A10 WARTHOG CAN COUNTER THE NORTH KOREAN ARTILLERY ?
United States undoubtedly possesses the military
hardware and capabilities to deliver an effective
strike on Pyongyang's nuclear facilities,
retaliation by the North is highly likely
to occur.
While this could of course come in the shape
of one of the regime's much vaunted intercontinental
ballistic missiles armed with a nuclear warhead,
observers believe the north's artillery would
almost certainly inflict devastating damage
against the south, regardless of the missile
program.
While a substantial part of North Korea's
military is made up of old antiquated Soviet
weaponry, its artillery capabilities remain
exceptionally powerful.
The North Korean People’s Army Artillery
Command has an estimated 12,000 pieces of
tube artillery and another 2,300 multiple
launch rocket systems.
Koksan 170mm self-propelled guns and 240mm
and 300mm multiple launch rocket batteries
are capable of striking Seoul.
For North Korea, deciding exactly what to
target with all of those heavy guns would
prove vital in any conflict.
There are two realistic options: a counterforce
attack or a countervalue attack.
In a counterforce attack, North Korea would
target South Korean and possibly even U.S.
military facilities near the demilitarized
zone (DMZ) and north of Seoul.
A countervalue attack, on the other hand,
is intended to shock South Korea by causing
significant civilian casualties and damage
to economically critical infrastructure.
Both the strategies would leave North Korean
artillery vulnerable to counter barrages and
airstrikes, giving the U.S. and South Korea
a chance at containing and eliminating the threat.
Placed into hard granite mountain faces and
protected behind blast doors, artilleries
can be hard to detect even harder to neutralize.
The constrained, mountainous terrain on the
Korean Peninsula and the heavily fortified
nature of the demilitarized zone massively
favor the use of artillery.
Based on the few artillery skirmishes that
have occurred, roughly 25 percent of North
Korean shells and rockets fail to detonate
on target.
Even allowing for improvements and assuming
a massive counterstrike artillery volley would
be more successful, a failure rate as high
as 15 percent would take a significant bite
out of the actual explosive power on target.
The rate of fire and accuracy of North Korean
artillery systems is also expected to be subpar.
This belief is founded on the observably poor
performance of North Korean artillery crews
during past skirmishes and exercises.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat,
twin turbofan engine, straight wing jet aircraft
developed by Fairchild-Republic for the United
States Air Force (USAF).
It was intended to improve on the performance
of the A-1 Skyraider and its lesser firepower.
Its airframe was designed for durability,
with measures such as 1,200 pounds (540 kg)
of titanium armor to protect the cockpit and
aircraft systems, enabling it to absorb a
significant amount of damage and continue
flying.
Its short takeoff and landing capability permits
operation from airstrips close to the front
lines, and its simple design enables maintenance
with minimal facilities.
The A-10 served in the Gulf War (Operation
Desert Storm), the American intervention against
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, where the A-10
distinguished itself.
The A-10 also participated in other conflicts
such as Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada,
the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, and against
ISILin the Middle East.
The A-10 was designed around the 30 mm GAU-8
Avenger rotary cannon.
The General Electric manufactures this hydraulically
driven seven-barrel Gatling-type auto cannon.
The Avenger delivers very powerful rounds
at a high rate of fire.
The magazine can hold 1,174 rounds, although
1,150 is the typical load-out.
Muzzle velocity when firing Armor-Piercing
Incendiary rounds is 1,013 m/s.
The GAU-8/A is extremely accurate and can
fire 4,200 rounds per minute without complications.
The 30-mm shell has twice the range, half
the time to target, and three times the mass
of projectiles fired by guns mounted in comparable
close air support aircraft
There is no technical limitation on the duration
the gun may be continuously fired, and a pilot
could potentially expend the entire ammunition
load in a single burst with no damage or ill
effects to the weapons system itself.
The aircraft can carry 16,000 pounds of mixed
ordnance; 8 can fly under the wings and 3
under-fuselage pylon station, Air Force statements
said.
The A-10 carries a full complement of weapons
to include Joint Direct Attack Munitions,
or JDAM GPS-guided bombs; its arsenal includes
GBU 38s, GBU 31s, GBU 54s, Mk 82s, Mk 84s,
AGM-65s (Maverick missiles), AIM-9 Sidewinder
missiles and rockets along with illumination
flares, jammer pods and other protective countermeasures.
Since the 1990s, right about the time the
Clinton administration decided not to undertake
military action against North Korea’s nuclear
program, the general consensus has been that
Pyongyang had enough artillery to turn nearby
Seoul into “sea of fire”.
U.S has now has better intelligence about
the North Korean artillery sites and they
will one of the high priority targets.
After the initial barrage by F22 Raptor, F
35 Lightning 2 fighter jets and B 52, B2 Spirit
bomber, the Warthog will be able to take out
the remaining with close in bombing raids.
The capability of North Korean artillery to
keep firing will reduce with each hour as
more of them get destroyed.
But according to a new report by Stratfor,
a geopolitical strategic forecasting firm,
a single volley from the North Korean artillery,
“could deliver more than 350 metric tons
of explosives across the South Korean capital,
roughly the same amount of ordnance dropped
by 11 B-52 bombers.”
So, the human casualty will still be very
high, if North Korea chooses a countervalue
attack, and targets 
the civilians.
