Pacific Stars & Stripes  

Monday, August 2, 1999

Monitoring plane arrives at Misawa

Aircraft could be in the Pacific theater to

observe an anticipated North Korean missile launch.

By Wayne Specht

Stripes Misawa Bureau Chief

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan - As the United States and North Korea's neighbors
watch intently for signs that Pyongyang is about to test another missile,
an unusual reconnaissance plane has landed at this northern Japan air base.

The jet is the latest addition to a fleet of U.S.  surveillance and reconnaissance
assets arriving recently in the Pacific.

An RC-135S, with unit tail letters of "OF'' on the vertical tail
fin, has been parked on the Misawa flight line since last week. It belongs
to the 55th Wing at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., which operates a fleet
of reconnaissance aircraft for special missions.

A  modified version of the KC-135 Stratotanker, the airborne intelligence
platform has three distinctive portholes on the right side of the fuselage,
similar to those of a Cobra Ball RC-135S, photos of which can be found in
commercial fact sheets on military aircraft on the Internet.

According to the authoritative Jane's All the World's Aircraft directory,
the Cobra Ball aircraft is fitted with sensors and long-range optical telescopes
used for tracking missile launches and predicting point of impact.

Air Force spokesmen in Japan are mum as to why the aircraft is at Misawa,
nor would they confirm whether the aircraft is a Cobra Ball.

"It might be next week before we get a response as to what the aircraft
is doing at Misawa,'' said Capt. Dave Honchul, a 5th Air Force spokesman.

Honchul could not confirm the aircraft was here from a detachment at
Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, where Offutt aircraft operate missions in the
western Pacific.

Last August, North Korea launched a Taepodong-1 missile, later claiming
it was a rocket used to send a satellite into orbit.

The missile flew over northern Japan, shocking the country.

The more advanced Taepodong-2, engineered by North Korea using Scud technology,
could bring Hawaii and U.S. coastlines, as well as all of Japan and Guam,
into range.

As recent news reports and military intelligence suggested North Korea
is preparing to test-fire the new missile, a vast array of mostly ship-based
U.S. surveillance equipment began arriving in Far East waters.

The Pentagon dispatched the Military Sealift Command ships USNS Observation
Island and USNS Invincible, both equipped with missile tracking systems.

The Invincible, which has been operating from Sasebo Naval Base in southwestern
Japan, is equipped with the Cobra Gemini defense system, which  can detect
Scud- class missile launches, according to a Web site by the system's manufacturer.

Cobra Judy, a defensive system that can detect and track intercontinental
ballistic missiles, is aboard the Observation Island, which has been operating
from Yokosuka Naval Base near Tokyo.

The Observation Island  tracked North Korea's missile launch a year ago,
which ended when the missile landed in the Pacific Ocean several hundred
miles east of Japan.