Tag: Ulchi Freedom Shield

The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise is here again. Any bets on what provocations that North Koreans will launch in response?:

South Korea and the United States kicked off a major combined military exercise for its 11-day run Monday to bolster their joint defense readiness amid advancing North Korean military threats.

The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise, which runs through Aug. 29, got under way in the face of growing concerns over Pyongyang’s continued weapons development, highlighted by its launches of 37 ballistic missiles this year alone and heightened cross-border tensions from the North’s recent trash balloon campaign.

Based on an all-out war scenario, the UFS features main computer simulation-based command post exercise, concurrent field training and civil defense drills, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

While the exercise will be similar in scale to the previous year, involving around 19,000 South Korean troops, it will include 48 field training events, such as amphibious landing and live-fire drills, up from 38 field events conducted last year. The number of brigade-level exercises will also increase to 17 this year, compared with four from the previous year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Exercise time is about to begin for USFK:

The United States and South Korea will kick off their second large-scale military exercise of the year next week with specific North Korean threats in mind. The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise will begin Aug. 19 throughout the South and focus on “realistic threats” from North Korea, such as weapons of mass destruction, cyber-attacks and GPS jamming, the Joint Chiefs said in a news release Monday. Roughly 19,000 South Korean troops will participate in the training, according to the Joint Chiefs.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is actually a pretty good article to read about skills the 10 armistice nations brought to assist USFK during the recently concluded UFS exercise. However, I think a gender advisor is probably not as useful as some of the other skills provided by participating nations:

British Royal Air Force Cpl. Sion Owen (left), New Zealand Royal Air Force Flt Lt. Natacha Baugen (center) and Australian Army Maj. Lyndsay Freeman speak during an interview on Aug. 30 at the headquarters of the UN Command located within Camp Humphreys, the US base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. (Korea Herald/ Pool Photo)

South Korea and the US, concluded on Thursday. UFS is primarily designed to enhance the combined defense posture and readiness of the allies by simulating real-life scenarios that reflect the increasing missile and nuclear threats posed by North Korea and other diverse threats within the security environment.

During the Korean War, there were 16 Sending States — countries that fought alongside the US-led UN Command and shed blood with South Korea — and six other countries that provided vital medical assistance, including medical personnel and essential medications. Among them, 17 countries have remained as UN Command member states.

Among the member states, 10 countries — Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and the US — dispatched augmentees from their respective countries to participate in UFS. Augmentees are military personnel dispatched from home and assigned to a unit to participate in UFS.

The 10 member states — each of which deployed soldiers during the Korean War — sent individuals from diverse backgrounds and experts representing various fields, including law and gender equality. They were all united by the common mission of contributing to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula. (….)

Australian Army Maj. Lyndsay Freeman also made significant contributions as an operational gender adviser, pioneering this vital role first introduced during UFS.

Freeman’s primary focus was to ensure that military actions underwent a meticulous assessment to prevent any unintended adverse effects on women and the broader civilian population on the ground — a perspective that might not always be immediately apparent to military leadership during the formulation of strategies and operational plans.

“So my job is to unpack the second-and third-order effects on the entire population.”

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This live fire is being executed as part of the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise:

South Korea and the United States staged a large-scale combined live-fire exercise near the inter-Korean border Wednesday, in a vivid display of the allies’ military might amid North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

A centerpiece of the Combined Joint Fires Coordination Exercise (CJFCX) took place in Rodriguez Live Fire Complex in Pocheon, about 30 kilometers south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), involving high-morale troops, battle tanks, mortars, howitzers and warplanes to boot.

Yonhap News Agency and three other news outlets were given access to observe the four-day exercise set to run through Thursday, as the allies are pushing to beef up combined drills amid concerns about possible North Korean provocations like a nuclear test.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The KCTU might as well as just say they get their marching orders from Pyongyang:

 Representatives of South Korea’s largest trade unions are warning that Ulchi Freedom Shield, the largest military exercise by the U.S. and South Korea in five years, runs counter to their members’ interests.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions together claim more than 2 million members working in government, schools, public transportation and the automotive and food industries.

Their street demonstrations against the large-scale drills have been frequent sights outside the presidential office in Seoul and U.S. bases like Camp Humphreys since the start of Ulchi Freedom Shield on Aug. 22.

“If a war breaks out, those who will suffer from the war are our people: workers and laborers,” Lee Jihyun, spokeswoman for the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I find it interesting that not once has the KCTU held a major rally to protest North Korea’s various provocations, missile launches, or nuclear tests. However the ROK holds defensive drills with the U.S. after suspending them for five years for nothing in return and they have a problem with that.

Here is a first that will occur during the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield Exercise:

A South Korean general for the first time is sharing command of one of the largest military exercises with U.S. forces on the peninsula.

South Korean army Gen. Ahn Byung-Seok, deputy commander of Combined Forces Command, is leading the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Paul LaCamera, USFK said in a news release Tuesday evening.

Ahn “will switch duties and responsibilities” with LaCamera during the 11-day exercise, the release said.

LaCamera also leads U.N. Command and Combined Forces Command, which is responsible for 600,000 U.S. and South Korean troops and up to 3.5 million South Korean reservists. Roughly 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed on the peninsula.

Ahn is the second-highest ranking leader of Combined Forces Command, one of the three major military commands responsible for the immediate defense of South Korea. The country’s unique military hierarchical structure typically places South Korean generals as deputies in Combined Forces Command, second only to an American general.

The military exercise, named after Eulji Mundeok, a 7th century Korean general, kicked off Monday and ends Sept. 1.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see what provocation North Korea decides to go with in response to this military exercise:

During the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, there will be 13 combined field training programs, as well as a full operational capability assessment, a key procedure for the envisioned conditions-based transfer of wartime operational control from Washington to Seoul.

The same day, the government also started the annual Ulchi civil defense training program, led by government employees for the next four days.

“We can protect the lives of the people and national security only through realistic drills. Preserving peace on the Korean Peninsula is built on our airtight defense preparedness,” President Yoon Suk-yeol said at a Cabinet meeting at his office in Seoul. “Today’s war is different from the one of the past. It may involve cyberattacks on key facilities such as ports, airports and (the manufacturing plants of) semiconductors or attacks on the supply chains of important materials, with the aim of neutralizing our war capabilities.”

In fact, during the last five years, the two allies’ regular military drills were canceled or reduced to just computer simulations, while North Korea tested new types of weapons from their arsenal as part of its weapons development program, including hypersonic as well as short-range, intermediate-range and long-range ballistic missiles, which require new contingency plans and new drills.

Although the two allies made it clear that the Ulchi Freedom training exercise is defensive in nature, it is expected to draw an aggressive reaction from the North, which is likely to be ready for its seventh nuclear weapons test.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is hard to believe that it has been five years since the US and the ROK conducted a full bilateral exercise:

The United States and South Korea kicked off a four-day preliminary drill Tuesday in preparation for their largest military exercise in five years.

The preliminary drill, which consists of training simulations, ends Friday and is the precursor to Ulchi Freedom Shield, the first large-scale command-post exercise between the U.S. and South Korea since 2017, according to a Ministry of Defense news release.

Ulchi Freedom Shield, named after Eulji Mundeok, a 7th century Korean general, is scheduled to start Monday and end Sept. 1. The exercise was known as Ulchi Freedom Guardian between 2008 to 2018 and as Combined Command Post Training from 2019 to 2021.

Ulchi Freedom Shield is one of two major exercises traditionally conducted annually by the U.S. and South Korea. Exercise Freedom Shield is scheduled for early next year.

Exact troop numbers and equipment used for the upcoming exercise have not been publicly released by U.S. Forces Korea or the Ministry of Defense. During Ulchi Freedom Guardian in 2017, around 50,000 South Korean and 17,500 U.S. service members were used for the air, land and sea drills. USFK has roughly 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Mark your calendar because sometime after August 22nd when the UFS exercise begins is likely when the North Koreans will launch a major provocation such as a ICBM launch or nuclear test:

Plans to expand a combined military drill between South Korea and the United States against North Korea’s growing threats are expected to bring the Korean Peninsula back to a state of confrontation, ratcheting up cross-border tensions, Pyongyang watchers said, Monday.

The prediction comes as the allies seek to enhance their overall capabilities to deal with a possible all-out war on the peninsula through the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise, scheduled for Aug. 22 to Sept. 1, according to Seoul’s defense ministry. In addition, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also threatened last week to annihilate the new South Korean administration he claimed is pursuing a U.S.-led hostile policy against the North. 

“It is inevitable that inter-Korean confrontation will deepen as North Korea has strongly responded to the combined exercise,” said Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher of the Korea Institute for National Unification.

Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, also presented a similar view.

“North Korea has denounced the combined exercise, along with a dispatch of U.S. strategic assets, as a hostile policy toward the country, so the North is anticipated to vehemently respond to the drill in accordance with its leader’s pledge, which would greatly escalate tensions on the peninsula,” Park said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.