Overview
- The biannual Freedom Flag training opened Friday at Gwangju Air Base and runs through April 24, with the 31st Air Expeditionary Wing supporting live flying units for the first time.
- South Korea is directing this iteration to measure its ability to assume wartime operational control from the United States by 2030.
- Participants are fielding fourth- and fifth-generation fighters, tankers, early warning aircraft and drones, including South Korea’s F-15K, KF-16 and F-35A and U.S. F-16, E-3G and RQ-4 plus Marine F/A-18 and MQ-9.
- Planned sorties cover defensive counterair, interdiction and close air support, and mission-planning teams will swap tactics using simulated enemy threats to refine procedures.
- A separate SALVEX exercise off Jinhae features South Korea’s rescue ship Tongyeong, U.S. Navy mobile diving and salvage units and, for the first time, Australian explosive ordnance divers to sharpen joint rescue and diving work.