Starting This Week, ROK-US Joint Military Exercises Underway

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The South Korean and U.S. military authorities will conduct a crisis management exercise starting on the 16th, ahead of the full-scale implementation of the joint exercise "Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS)."

According to the military, the crisis management exercise assumes signs of a crisis situation such as war on the Korean Peninsula and practices the procedures for the ROK and U.S. to jointly resolve it politically and diplomatically. After the crisis management exercise ends, the main UFS exercise will be conducted from the 22nd, consisting of Part 1 (five days) and Part 2 (four days).

The Ministry of National Defense plans to enhance the capability to conduct total national defense during this UFS, which is held concurrently with the government exercise, by applying realistic scenarios considering international conflicts and infrastructure threats. These include the discovery and handling of improvised explosive devices at nuclear power plants, fires at semiconductor factories, and paralysis of bank computer networks.

Exercises for airport terror response, drone attacks on civilian and military facilities, and damage recovery at multi-use facilities will also be conducted to supplement and verify the integrated defense operation plan. Joint field training exercises (FTX) by units and functions will be held as well. There are 11 events including joint scientific combat training, joint attack helicopter firing training, and joint maritime patrol operations.

Additionally, a four-star general from the Republic of Korea Army will command the future Combined Forces Command and conduct the Full Operational Capability (FOC) evaluation, which is the second stage of the three-stage operational capability assessment for the wartime operational control transfer.