During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was North Korea's lifeline, providing weapons,
supplies, training, and even some limited military assistance to the North Korean government.
While US and Soviet troops never clashed on the ground on the Korean peninsula, Soviet
fighters provided some limited cover over certain parts of North Korea, though refused
North Korea's requests to fly frontline combat support against American jets.
Without the Soviet Union, North Korea would have fallen to the South, and today the hermit
kingdom and the Kim family would not exist- a very obvious win for all of humanity.
Today, Russia engages in only minor trade with the internationally shunned kingdom,
and no longer directly finances or supports it.
With North Korea owing its existence to the old Soviet Union though, could North Korea
repay that favor by teaming up with modern Russia against its greatest international
rival: the United States?
Could North Korea and Russia team up to destroy the US?
We've looked at a potential conflict between the US and Russia before, and already determined
that the Russian military is simply not capable of winning a war against the American military.
The modern Russian military is made up of just over 1 million active-duty personnel,
with US forces numbering at about 1.4 million.
There isn't just a numbers disparity though, as there is also a training and morale disparity
between the two militaries- despite attempts to move to an all-volunteer force by the Russian
military, it is still overwhelmingly made up of conscripts, versus an all-volunteer
military fielded by the United States.
Conscripts historically greatly underperform versus volunteer military forces, and suffer
both from morale and training issues- two things which would be of grave concern to
a Russia fighting an uphill war against a more technologically capable opponent.
However, what if North Korea lent its forces to the fight, bolstering Russian numbers so
that they dwarfed America's?
With an active-duty military of 1.3 million, Russian and North Korean forces combined would
number at 2.3 million, outnumbering the US by 700,000- a significant advantage.
Of course in a real conflict neither side could use its full military in a conflict
against the other, as both sides in this hypothetical war would need to maintain military presences
in other strategically important areas.
Russia would still need to secure its eastern border against NATO's counter-attack upon
declaring war on the US, as NATO's charter states that an attack on one is an attack
on all, automatically triggering a declaration of war by the entire alliance on the aggressor.
Without the US's homeland and overseas forces stationed outside of Europe though, NATO would
be unable to prosecute a war against Russia, as Europe's militaries are simply too weak
to stand up to Russia in anything but a defensive war.
To make matters worse, some countries, such as Canada and Germany, are experiencing serious
logistical issues which leaves large parts of their forces combat ineffective.
In 2019 the German Air Force was incapable of sustaining the type of air operations needed
in a conflict against Russia due to a lack of equipment and maintenance issues with its
planes, with Canada suffering a similar issue and a fighter shortage that left it unable
to fulfill its commitments to North American aerospace defense.
Still, with Russian forces elsewhere, NATO could pose serious problems for Russia, and
thus Russia would need to retain a significant bulwark to deter against NATO aggression on
its eastern front.
North Korea also has strategic concerns that would leave it unable to fully commit its
forces to a fight against the US, as despite being the 25th most powerful military in the
world, it faces South Korea directly across the DMZ which is currently ranked as the world's
sixth most powerful military.
The United States perhaps though has a worse strategic picture than either of these two
nations, as its military forces are deployed around the world in a variety of strategic
hotspots, and very often its these military forces that ensure regional peace and stability.
Its large commitment in the Middle East ensures that conflict does not arise between historical
rivals such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, which would have devastating consequences for the
global economy.
Iran's strategic goals in a potential conflict against Saudi Arabia or the US is to shut
down the Persian Gulf oil trade, which thanks to the geography of the Gulf of Oman it could
easily do by threatening oil tankers with long range stand-off weapons that the US or
any of its allies could do little about.
Iranian special forces could even scuttle a tanker in the Suez Canal, yet another military
objective of Iran in case of war, which would choke off one of the world's most important
trade arteries for weeks, possibly months.
In the South Pacific, US forces help maintain the balance between China and its neighbors,
with China being a particularly bad actor in the region and bullying or outright stealing
territory and resources from nations like the Philippines, Vietnam, and others.
China and Japan, long-time rivals, also rely on the US presence to maintain stable relationships,
with the threat of American firepower backing up its Japanese allies keeping China's behavior
in check.
Realistically, both sides could only count on perhaps half of their total military power
in a conflict against the other, though in this regard the US has an advantage as it
has long operated its military under a doctrine that states it must be able to fight and defeat
two near-peer adversaries simultaneously, anywhere in the world.
For this reason the US maintains the world's largest sea and airborne mobility fleet, allowing
it to quickly move forces around the world to any conflict, but also giving it the advantage
of quickly replacing frontline forces in need of rest and recuperation with reserve forces
stationed elsewhere on peacekeeping duties.
This ability will insure the integrity of US frontline forces better than North Korea
and Russia, who both have major shortfalls in mobility and will be forced to leave their
frontline forces in-theater for longer, wearing on morale, equipment, and unit integrity from
casualties.
Mobility though is a major challenge for the Russian-North Korean alliance.
North Korean mobility is all but nil, with only a token air or sea-mobility force used
to counter South Korean advances into its territory.
Russia operates a far larger mobility command, though it is on its own barely enough to move
Russian forces in significant quantities anywhere around the world, and far short of what would
be needed for a major offensive against a military power such as the United States.
With only 12 of its heaviest transport aircraft, the Antonov AN-124 in service, the only aircraft
capable of moving heavy military equipment in significant quantities, Russia would be
hard-pressed to quickly move critical tanks, air defense assets, and artillery to the North
American continent for an invasion.
Its fleet of 109 Ilyushin II-76 aircraft could supplement that airlift capacity, but on their
own these aircraft would be able to move perhaps a platoon's worth of soldiers and their equipment
and one main battle tank per flight.
At sea, the Russian navy doesn't fare much better, with a fleet of only about 20 landing
ships with another two in reserve.
Each of these ships could carry around 20 tanks and up to 425 troops, and even if Russia
could muster its entire mobility fleet at once- which is not realistic as due to maintenance
and retrofit requirements no navy on earth ever has full use of all its ships at any
one time- Russia could still only move 440 tanks and perhaps two regiments of infantry
per sortie.
Even with no casualties amongst the landing ships, and no equipment breakdowns through
perhaps some miracle, it would take over six months to move the entire North Korean and
Russian military to North America.
Deciding on where to land in the US though would be vital for the Russian/North Korean
alliance, and there are few good options.
Even if we ignored the reality of NATO or South Korea, Australia, and Japan coming to
the US's defense, and Russia could concentrate its forces for an assault on North America,
it would still need to get through the teeth of the American navy.
An invasion of America would require months of preparation, moving naval and air assets
to Russia's west coast- which would afford the US just as much time to prepare to counter
such an invasion.
With the US concentrating its naval forces in the Pacific, the most direct route would
be the best route, with Russian/North Korean forces striking directly into Alaska to secure
a foothold on North America.
Anchorage would be the most ideal target for an invasion, as it holds a large deepwater
port that would make it possible to quickly offload forces.
An assault against any other part of the Alaskan coast would require the use of landing craft,
something which is also in short supply in the Russian navy.
Invading Alaska poses several problems, as the Japanese found out in World War II.
First, it's too far away from the American heartland to pose any serious economic or
industrial risk to the US's warfighting effort.
While oil-rich, the US would easily be able to supplement its consumption via the Gulf
of Mexico or even overseas sources, and the seizure of Alaskan oil fields would result
in extremely minor economic harm to the US economy.
Still, with such limited mobility assets, Alaska would be the best bet for the alliance
to gain a vitally important foothold in North America.
Russian invasion craft however would face the full wrath of the world's largest submarine
fleet, in an environment that is keenly suited for submarine warfare thanks to the turbulent
nature of the Bering Sea.
Even in summertime the Bering can be treacherous to cross, and winter operations for heavy
military cargo craft would be all but impossible.
Anti-submarine operations in rough seas are an extremely dicey proposition, and while
Russia does maintain a capable attack submarine fleet, it's dwarfed in size and capabilities
by the American fleet.
To make matters worse, Russia only operates a single aircraft carrier, and the nation
severely lacks in aerial refueling craft.
As if that wasn't bad enough, only a portion of the Russian air force is even capable of
in-flight refueling, meaning that for the crossing across the Bering Sea, the invasion
fleet would be largely without air cover.
The US on the other hand has two major Air Force installations in Alaska, Eielson and
Elmendorf air force bases, and in the months leading up to the invasion would quickly expand
their capacity to host the rest of the significantly large American air force by building extra
runways, hangars, and maintenance facilities.
Even without the use of its 11 aircraft carriers, of which realistically only perhaps five would
be available for combat ops at any one time, the US Air Force would easily defend Alaska
from invasion, and with a fleet of about 450 aerial tankers- the largest in the world-
American jets would have the range to cover any possible invasion avenue.
With 31 AWACs aircraft- or Airborne Warning And Control System- in its fleet, the US air
force would be able to supplement its land-based radar coverage to detect Russian ships and
air forces at great ranges.
Russia on the other hand only operates about 15-19 AWACS systems, and despite their long
range the lack of air refueling capabilities in the Russian Air Forces would mean very
limited sortie rates and loitering times both.
In effect, a serious deficiency in airborne radar, aerial refueling, and military transport
would make an invasion of Alaska completely impossible.
The logistics simply don't exist for the alliance to make such an attempt, and with major Army
bases in Alaska and fast rail and airborne transport capabilities by the US, even if
Russian landing craft managed to make it through the teeth of the US Navy and Air Force both,
they would be completely overwhelmed by American land forces and destroyed in a very short
matter of time.
An attempt could be made to cross across the North Pole's ice cap, though such an attempt
would have to be done in winter, meaning horrible weather conditions which would wreak havoc
on men and equipment both.
Then there's also the problem of extended supply lines, and even with ad-hoc airfields
quickly built on the ice, the invasion force would still lack the air cover needed to be
protected from the American air force.
Even if by some miracle the alliance managed to take Alaska- which let's be clear, this
is a complete strategic impossibility- the United States and its warfighting capability
would be negligibly affected by the invasion.
The alliance would have to push into the continental US to seriously damage its industrial and
military capabilities to wage war, and that would mean pushing through Canada and adding
yet another combatant to the fight as Canada would under no circumstances allow such an
invasion force to simply stroll through its territory.
To make matters worse, the force would have to move through very difficult terrain which
would heavily favor American and Canadian defenders, and as it moved further and further
south, it would face even greater numbers of American air forces.
In Alaska, American air forces would be limited by the physical space available on air fields
to host them, but in the continental US, the widespread number of large civilian airports
and military air bases means that the vast American Air Force would be able to be brought
down on the invasion force in full effect, while Russian forces would still only be able
to operate a token number of aircraft from seized Alaskan and Canadian air fields, and
only operate at limited ranges due to a lack of aerial refueling assets.
North Korea would be able to give Russia the numbers needed to seriously challenge the
United States, but in terms of technology and additional assets it would offer very
little to the alliance.
If anything, the added burden of supplying and transporting North Korean troops might
even seriously damage Russia's own capabilities, after all there is little possibility that
North Korea could actually maintain the supply requirements of its vast military past a few
weeks.
In the end, as we've seen before countless times in these scenarios, America's homeland
could never be breached by an invading force due to the current lack of mobility and logistical
support aircraft and ships amongst the world's navies.
If any nation on earth were to attempt it, they would need to heavily invest in building
at least as large a mobility and logistical fleet as the US, because it doesn't matter
how many guns you have- if you can't move them in significant numbers quickly enough,
any invasion is bound to fail.
Wanna see how the US would fare against the entire world trying to invade it?
Check out our video US VS the World, who would win?
Or check out this other video instead!