Sixty F-16s taxiing at Kunsan air base in one of the greatest show of force ever: that's a record-breaking Elephant Walk!

March 6, 2012 Military Aviation
David Cenciotti

If I was able to correctly translate what the Chosun website says, the ones below show 60 U.S. F-16s and South Korea’s ROKAF KF-16s taxiing down the runway at Kunsan airbase during an exercise.

This kind of collective display of capability and teamwork, with military aircraft taxiing in close formation right before a minimum interval takeoff, in what is referred to as an “Elephant Walk”, is often performed at airbases all around the world to prepare squadrons for war time operations: what’s important is to test crews capability to quickly and safely prepare fully armed aircraft for a mass launch.

However, even if all the wartime operational procedures are conducted, the aircraft don’t take flight and it’s a pity because I would be curious to see how they would sequence departures to achieve proper separation considered the take-off weight and wake turbulence.

Anyway, an interesting show of force, that will surely impress Pyongyang.

Image credit: bemil.chosun.com

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David Cenciotti is a freelance journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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7 Comments

  2. Has anyone checked to see if Francis Ford Coppola is re-making “Apocalypse Now”…this could be his doing.

    I bet he is just off camera yelling at the F-16 pilots over the radio. Come on…Martin Sheen Is still around…Robert Duvall too. I’m thinking that Russell Brand could play Dennis Hoppers part.

    “Special effects?…we don’t need no stinking effects”

    • Google Translator translated the Korean website giving 60 planes. Then, in the pictures I count four rows, the first of which is made of 15 F-16s giving a grand total of 60.

  5. ok…a couple of snarky emails later…I’ll explain my Coppola comment.
    During the filming of Apocalyse Now…the director hired helicopters from the Philippine military…painted them U.S. colors….filmed…then stripped off the paint jobs and sent them back…on a daily basis.

    On some days he couldn’t get any helicopters because they were away fighting insurgents

    http://youtu.be/1b26BD5KjH0

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