Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site rabbit.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!allegra!alice!rabbit!jj
From: jj@rabbit.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Re: What KAL007 could learn
Message-ID: <1925@rabbit.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Sep-83 14:01:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: rabbit.1925
Posted: Tue Sep 13 14:01:58 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Sep-83 22:22:53 EDT
References: <1924@rabbit.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 36

I don't buy a lot of what rabbit!wolit suggests. 
We don't know which planes they will sscramble, etc,
but we do know exactly what kinds of radar, what
sort of radio communications, etc, they have,
so the only thing we acheive by testing them is
finding out if their in-place systems work.
I think we already knew that.

A further result of testing their defenses is that
we show the soviets any weaknesses or flaws in
their response strategy, something I don't think we
really need to do.  

In short, I don't think that there was any useful
information to be gained by the overflight.
We know what kinds of planes they had in the area,
we know that they are armed, we know the kind
of tracking systems, we know the freguencies used
for the various radio/radar systems, we know their
pulse rates, shapes, identification mechanism,
in short, we already know everything we need to
estimate their operational capability WITHOUT
trying the system out.
I don't think even the most rabid McCarthy leftovers
are either stupid or psychotic enought to send another
nation's airplane over hostile territory just to see
if they will really shoot.


I must say that the Koreans may indeed think differently, 
its been clearly shown that the US can't keep them 
"under control".  I can conceive of a scene where the
US wouldn't give the Koreans the most recent information
for security purposes, and the Koreans decided to
take matters into their own hands.  I don't hold
the US responsible for this.