KF‑16 mishap: Errant bomb strike injures 15 near Seoul
"Eight MK-82 general-purpose bombs were abnormally released from an Air Force KF-16 aircraft, landing outside the designated firing range," the Korean air forces reported. We'll explain what kind of ammunition struck civilian buildings.
In South Korea, exercises associated with the Freedom Shield 2025 manoeuvres have already begun, mobilising F-35A, F-15, and KF-16 fighters. It was the latter aircraft that was involved in the incident (at 2 AM Greenwich Mean Time) near the Seungjin range in the town of Pocheon. The KF-16 "improperly" released eight Mk 82 bombs, approximately 40 kilometres from Seoul. As a result of the bomb drop, 15 people were injured, and several buildings incurred damage.
The aircraft dropped bombs on civilian structures
The Mk 82 bombs in question are American general-purpose munitions with a nominal weight of about 225 kilograms. It is one of the smallest munitions of this type currently in use and one of the most popular in the world (in 2017, their production began at the Nitro-Chem plant in Bydgoszcz).
The Mk 82 is a free-falling bomb with a fragmentation-explosive warhead (with Tritonal, i.e., a charge weighing about 87 kilograms inside). A single missile reaches about 2.2 metres in length and just under 30 centimetres in diameter. This ammunition can have different fins, fuzes, and systems to delay descent. The Mk 82 is also used as the warhead of laser-guided systems (bombs from the GBU family, i.e., GBU-12, GBU-22, GBU-38). Generally, it is armament designed for striking buildings.
On the other hand, the KAI KF-16 Fighting Falcon is a South Korean fighter aircraft developed based on the American F-16 Fighting Falcon. It has served in the Korean forces since 1998 and is a multi-role design intended for conducting air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.
The Pratt & Whitney F-100-PW-229 engine propels the "Korean F-16." It is engineered to provide the best possible thrust-to-weight ratio and excellent manoeuvrability, making the KF-16 a challenging target in the sky. It moves quickly and is agile.
