Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

The ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command(CFC) said, on February 24, that Korea-U.S. combined training, Key Resolve(KR) and Foal Eagle(FE), starts on March 2.

KR, held until March 13, is a regular command post exercise to cope with a potential crisis on the Korean Peninsula, and 8,600 U.S. soldiers, 6,750 of them reinforced from overseas, and 10,000 Korean soldiers engage in the exercise. 

And FE is a combined and/or joint field training exercise aiming for ground, aerial, sea, landing and special operations participated in by the ROK-U.S. CFC, Korean Army and U.S. forces in Korea. This year’s FE exercise will continue until April 24 with 3,700 U.S. soldiers, including 3,500 reinforced soldiers from overseas, and several Korean military units.

In particular, most capable U.S. Littoral Combat Ship(LCS), Fort Worth, is eye-catching for this KR/FE. It is designed for smooth operation even in a low depth of water so that it can reach 87km/h rapidly through waterjet propulsion in spite of its 3,000-ton class fleet. It also loads two Seahawk helicopters, MH-60, and MQ-8 unmanned helicopter, being able to engage in naval warfare, antisubmarine warfare and mine sweeping actions by being armed with 57mm warship, ship-to-air missiles(RAM), and etc. It is distinguishable for introducing a Modular system that replaces armament and equipment according to its missions.

One CFC official said, “This KR/FE is the first training with Fort Worth after its force integration. Four other LCSs will also be deployed in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Along with this, five other UN dispatch nations – Australia, Canada, Denmark, France and the U.K. - will participate in the KR exercise, and in accordance with a ceasefire agreement, Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) will witness the exercise.

Commander, combined forces command, Curtis Scaparrotti, said, “The KR exercise is very important to Korea and to the UN dispatch nations’ participants as well. We will upgrade to a high level of ability to perform core tasks by dealing with various scenarios.”

Meanwhile, on the morning of the same day through the Military Armistice Commission, the CFC officially informed the North Korea representative department of Panmunjeom of the schedule of KR/FE exercises and the fact that it is a regular training without any feature of provocation. North Korea, however, increased the threat level and issued demands for stopping the exercise, blaming KR/FE as a practice for aggressive war.

A military spokesman, Kim Min-Seok, said at a regular briefing, “The scale of this training would be similar with that of last year, and its contents are slightly different according to which scenario we focus on. We will proceed with the training as scheduled regardless of North Korea’s situation or any other threatening statements.”

By Chul-Hwan, Kim <droid001@dema.mil.kr>

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