Free Foxbat by James Barrington Page B

to be on this side so that he could see right into the hangars.
    Like most North Korean airfields, T’ae’tan appeared to consist of a runway and not
     much else. Again, like most military airfields in this country, it was built close to a mountainside – or, in this case, a rocky hillside bordering the north side of the narrow valley.
     The reason for this was simple enough. The North Koreans always tried to construct hardened shelters for their air assets and command centres, and natural rock offered much better protection
     than concrete. Invariably expecting any attack to come from the south, they almost always began their excavations on the northern slope of the hill or mountain. Locating a hangar’sentrance, its most vulnerable part, to the north ensured that the bulk of the rock obstructed any assault from the south.
    Satellite photographs of T’ae’tan had revealed it possessed a long, straight
     taxiway, big enough to use as a secondary runway in an emergency. It bordered the runway itself on its south side, and extended some distance beyond it. There a spur ran off, splitting into
     two, and appeared to terminate in the hills fringing the south side of the narrow valley. In fact, these two sections of the taxiway led to the hangars excavated into the hillside, and it was
     those that Yi Min-Ho was now watching from his current perch on the opposite ridge.
    The instructions he’d been given by his superior officer at Naegok-dong were clear and
     simple: he was to observe this airfield and assess its current activity. Specifically, he was to identify and report on the type, numbers and possible tasking of any unusual aircraft he
     spotted. His secondary task was to confirm the exact numbers of Chinese-built Shenyang F-5 single-seat jet interceptors – an old aircraft design based on the Russian MiG-17 – and
     also whatever Ilyushin Il-28 bombers the base had operational.
    The Ilyushins had arrived at T’ae’tan back in October 1995, as part of a major
     redeployment of North Korean air assets that saw more than one hundred aircraft moved to forward bases close to the DMZ or Demilitarized Zone. South Korean experts calculated that the Il-28s
     could reach Seoul within as little as ten minutes, should hostilities break out.
    By late morning, he’d already filled a couple of pages of his notebook with
     observations. His country’s National Intelligence Service is technically advanced, but for counting aircraft Yi Min-Ho needed no more than a pair of binoculars and a pencil and paper.
     Of the three squadrons of F-5 aircraft known to be based at T’ae’tan, he’d counted only five different planes, and just three of those had so far got airborne. He’d
     watched the other two being moved from their hardened shelters and parked outside. Either all the remaining aircraft belonging to the squadrons were currently in deep maintenance, Yi
     surmised, or they’d been moved somewhere else entirely. And so far he hadn’t seen a single Ilyushin.
    Four of the six hangar doors he was watching were obviously newlyconstructed, which meant the North Koreans had recently dug some additional space into the hillside opposite. Yi had already estimated the likely number of aircraft these new
     shelters could accommodate, from careful observation with his binoculars of the old hangars through their open doors. He’d also noted that the single runway had been extended eastwards,
     as evidenced by new concrete a different shade to the original surface. This was another vital indication that the airfield’s operational capability was being augmented.
    After another scan with his binoculars to confirm nothing new was happening below him, Yi Min-Ho
     decided he might as well take an early lunch. He had to keep his strength up, but the prospect of consuming another MRE ‘delicacy’ was less than enthralling. He pulled the
     haversack towards him and picked through its packets to make a selection. As he swallowed the first