Latest news with #SeventhAirForce
Yahoo
03-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Air Force creates a second ‘super squadron' in South Korea
The U.S. Air Force is relocating nearly three dozen F-16 fighter jets in South Korea in order to beef up its air power closer to the north. At the end of July, F-16s based out of Kunsan Air Base began moving to Osan Air Base, several dozen miles north, closer to the demilitarized zone with North Korea. 31 F-16s based out of Kunsan Air Base will shift to Osan Air Base, creating a new 'super squadron' at the base. It's the second phase of the Air Force's tests of the super squadron concept, as the force works to 'consolidate air power and increase combat capability on the Korean Peninsula,' per releases. The Air Force began exploring the idea of a super squadron last summer. The test formation, which boosts a squadron by a third of its fighter component, started with the 36th Fighter Squadron, which added nine F-16s to bring its total number of jets to 31. It also moved 150 airmen to help bolster the squadron. At the time Lt. Gen. David. R. Iverson, head of the Seventh Air Force and U.S. Forces Korea deputy commander, described the experiment as 'an opportunity for us to see if squadrons of this size increase our training effectiveness while also increasing our combat capability if deterrence fails.' Now the Air Force is initiating phase two of the tests, with the creation of a brand new super squadron at Osan. Alongside the 31 planes, roughly 1,000 airmen from the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan will transfer to the northern air base as part of this build up. The Air Force described the second phase as a 'temporary' shift. The second super squadron is expected to be operational by October, and the second phase will last through October 2026. Top Stories This Week News The Marine Corps is looking for 'volunteers' to leave the service early The Marine Corps is looking for 'volunteers' to leave the service early By Patty Nieberg News South Korea tours will now be a year longer as Army cuts down on moves South Korea tours will now be a year longer as Army cuts down on moves By Patty Nieberg Tech & Tactics 'Brutality over precision' — What the Army is learning from Russia in Ukraine 'Brutality over precision' — What the Army is learning from Russia in Ukraine By Kyle Gunn 'We're working hand-in-hand with the Wolfpack to ensure a smooth transition of both personnel and equipment in preparation for Phase II,' Col. Ryan Ley, commander of the 51st Fighter Wing based out of Osan, said in a statement. 'The 51st Fighter Wing is leading the charge on the Super Squadron Test. I'm proud of what the Mustangs have accomplished already, and I look forward to testing the limits of what we can do over the next year.' According to the Air Force, the 51st Fighter Wing will work on expanding bilateral training at Kunsan Air Base with the Republic of Korea Air Force during this period. The super squadron build up is the latest in a wider set of efforts by the Air Force to strengthen its fighter jet presence in east Asia. Over the last three years, the Air Force began phasing out its aging F-15C/Ds from Kadena Air Base in Japan, with the plan to replace them with F-15EXs. The Air Force has temporarily rotated in F-15Es and F-22s during this time. Solve the daily Crossword
Miami Herald
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
US Expands F-16 Threat Against North Korea
The United States is set to create a second F-16 fighter aircraft "Super Squadron" in South Korea, maximizing combat capability to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. Newsweek has reached out to the North Korean Embassy in China for comment by email. The U.S. has maintained a military presence in South Korea, one of its Northeast Asian treaty allies, since the combat operations of the Korean War ended in 1953, which serves as a deterrent against North Korea, one of the nine nuclear-armed countries, with 50 warheads. Both the South Korean air force and American forces in the country operate the F-16, which is a high-demand fourth-generation fighter jet known as the Fighting Falcon. South Korea is the second largest F-16 user in the Western Pacific Ocean, having ordered a total of 180 jets. Osan Air Base, located to the south of the South Korean capital city of Seoul, will establish the second "Super Squadron" of the F-16 fighter jets in October, the U.S. Seventh Air Force, which is part of the larger U.S. forces stationed in the allied country, announced on Friday. The first squadron was created in 2024 by relocating nine F-16 fighter jets from Kunsan Air Base to Osan Air Base, which originally had 22 Fighting Falcons. Kunsan Air Base will transfer an additional 31 fighter jets over the summer, forming the second squadron. The second phase of the "Super Squadron" test, which will also involve the transfer of about 1,000 personnel to Osan Air Base from Kunsan Air Base, aims at examining the ability to increase combat force generation and maximize capability, according to the press release. The establishment of another "super squadron" was approved after analysis of the first one, which showed that a "consolidated, larger unit" increased readiness and combat capability, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General David Iverson, Seventh Air Force commander, explained. By consolidating the F-16 fighter aircraft at Osan Air Base, it will further determine "if the Super Squadron construct is the right path for future air power generation," Iverson added. While most of its F-16 fighter jets are sent to Osan Air Base, Kunsan Air Base will maintain flightline operations and facilities, the Seventh Air Force said, serving as a primary exercise and rotational force bed-down location for America's air component forces in South Korea. General David Allvin, chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, said: "We're standing up a second Super Squadron at Osan [Air Base]. This temporary change allows us to test and validate force generation capabilities on the Korean Peninsula, ultimately fostering a more lethal, ready air doubts that the ROK-U.S. alliance is ironclad!" ROK stands for Republic of Korea, which is the official name of South Korea. U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General David Iverson, Seventh Air Force commander, said: "This Super Squadron effort demonstrates our steadfast focus on readiness and combat capability to achieve U.S. national security objectives." The U.S. Seventh Air Force said: "Seventh Air Force remains committed to ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula. The Super Squadron test has no impact on Seventh Air Force's ability to employ air power to deter aggression and defend the Republic of Korea against any threat." It remains to be seen whether the U.S. military will deploy additional units to South Korea amid tensions with North Korea. The Pentagon has reinforced its air power in Japan, another U.S. treaty ally in Northeast Asia, by deploying stealth fighter jets and supersonic bombers. Related Articles US Says Houthi Capabilities DegradedUS Anti-Ship Missiles Challenge Nearby Chinese Aircraft CarrierAmericans Share Best Financial Advice They Ever Received-It's Eye-OpeningUber Could Be Halted For Millions of Americans 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Air Force F-16 'super squadron' to maximize combat readiness in South Korea
April 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Air Force will increase combat capability in South Korea, temporarily creating a new "super squadron" of F-16 Fighting Falcon military jets at a military base in that country. The 31 single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft and 1,000 accompanied personnel will transfer from Osan Air Base to Kunsan Air Base over the summer ahead of planned military exercises in the fall, the U.S. Air Force confirmed this week. The two facilities are located approximately 84 miles apart. Officials believe the move to consolidate will "optimize capabilities and maximize combat effectiveness," guarding against possible aggression from neighboring North Korea. The Air Force first tested the "super squadron" concept last October on the Korean Peninsula to see if the idea proved beneficial. Officials sad the large-scale test will have "no impact" on the Air Force's ability to conduct other missions in the region. "The past months of data reveal that we're on the right track and the consolidated, larger unit has shown some increases in readiness and combat capability, while also exposing some challenges," Seventh Air Force commander Lt. Gen. David Iverson said in a statement on the unit's website. "With this success we're now expanding the scope, by consolidating the F-16s in Seventh Air Force at Osan, to further determine if the super squadron construct is the right path for future airpower generation here in Korea." Iverson posted a video on X of the F-16s on the ground. "This temporary change allows us to test and validate force generation capabilities on the Korean peninsula, ultimately fostering a more lethal, ready air component," he said in the post, adding there are "no doubts that the ROK-U.S. alliance is ironclad." "The Super Squadron test aims to increase sortie generation and combat capability, while enhancing readiness and responsiveness." The F-16 fighter was developed by Virginia-based aerospace and defense firm General Dynamics and first introduced in 1976. More than 4,600 of the jets have since been built, with more than 3,100 of the planes currently operated by 28 countries, according to Lockheed Martin, which took control of the program in 1995. The jet is the most common fixed-wing military aircraft in service worldwide.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: Trump's Betrayal of Ukraine Should Make Another U.S. Ally Tremble
SEOUL—The spectacle of several hundred thousand right-wing demonstrators flashing U.S. and South Korean flags near the main avenue from the American embassy here hides an inconvenient truth about U.S. policy toward North Korea. The demonstrators are supporters of Yoon Suk-yeol, the conservative president who triggered a major political crisis by briefly declaring martial law in December. Yoon's fans, like Trump's MAGA supporters, view their political hero as being unfairly persecuted by the justice system and the victim of a rigged election—many even display 'Stop the Steal' signs at protests and wear ball caps emblazoned with the words 'Make Korea Great Again.' To them, it's unthinkable that Trump would betray South Korea the way he's betraying Ukraine. 'He won't give up on South Korea,' said Yun Sang-hyun, a conservative member of the South's National Assembly, at an event in central Seoul this month memorializing the massacre of 10,000 Koreans by the Japanese on March 1, 1919. 'The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea. It is vital for the U.S.' Sure. But in his first term, Trump threatened to pull American troops out of South Korea while demanding $5 billion from the South for keeping most of them on America's largest overseas military base, Camp Humphreys, 40 miles south of Seoul, and nearby Osan, home of the Seventh Air Force, which is key to defense against the North. Trump is now also saying he would like to speak to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un again after failing to get the despot to give up Pyongyang's nuclear program over three meetings during his first term. Since they last met almost six years ago, Kim has vastly strengthened his alliance with Putin and sent thousands of his troops to fight and die in the war against Ukraine, along with shipments of millions of artillery shells and other armaments. 'He can show up with Kim Jong Un, and we need to be able to have these conversations with the Russians,' said Richard Grenell, Trump's new ambassador for special missions, at a confab of the Conservative Political Action Committee near Washington. 'I don't think that talking means you're weak. I actually think talking is a tactic to get to a goal.' For Kim Jong Un, the goal would be much the same harsh result for which the Russians, and North Koreans, are fighting in Ukraine: Defeat of the Ukraine army and the downfall of President Volodymyr Zelensky's regime in Kyiv. In any new talks with Trump, Kim would also likely demand replacing the armistice that ended the Korean War in July 1953 with a peace treaty calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. The U.S. would have to give up its alliance with South Korea, exposing the South to North Korean attacks with tactical nukes. 'It's a very big asset for everybody that I do get along with him,' Trump said of Kim at the White House last month. In South Korea, conservatives also cannot believe that Trump won't support them in their demands for Yoon's return to full power as president. A constitutional court is to decide soon on whether to approve Yoon's impeachment; he also faces a charge of insurrection that could result in life in prison or even death—though that's hardly likely since a district court freed him from jail while on trial. The constitutional court on Monday overturned the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was filling in as 'acting president' until the assembly impeached him too. Han, having stoutly denied abetting Yoon's martial law declaration, is back at his desk as acting president while tension mounts for a ruling on Yoon. Far from being ready to rise to the South's defense, Trump's betrayal of Ukraine indicates he might be more open to the plans of South Korea's leftist Democratic Party—or Minju—whose members are eager for talks with the North and a deal that would leave the South, like Ukraine, forsaken by the Americans. In an effort to win support from Trump, leftists in the South have even nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Evidence for this route to Trump's heart lies in the handwritten notes of an influential member of Korea's national assembly, Park Sun-won, of a meeting in which he told Joseph Yun—the acting U.S. ambassador to Seoul—that he had nominated Trump for the prize. The notes report on a wide-ranging conversation in which Yun, who served from 2016 to 2018 as American point man on North Korea, discussed the North Korean issue 'in the Ukraine framework.' They were joined by a leftist academic, Moon Jung-in, who advised South Korean leftist presidents on how to achieve reconciliation with the North. The U.S. embassy in Seoul did not respond to requests for comment on Yun's luncheon meeting with Park and Moon. Together, Park and Moon are at the forefront of pressure for a deal with Kim, with whom Trump said he 'fell in love' at their first summit in Singapore in June 2018. Park's notes on his meeting with Yun convey the understanding, in Korean, that 'we don't have to argue' and 'we don't have to make any controversial issue.' On American policy, Park wrote, again in Korean, 'We are in the course of efforts to do something.' Specifically, Park's note said they had talked about the 'Trump initiative' of 'using Russian and Chinese leverage' over North Korea with an emphasis on getting away from multilateralism. Rather than coordinating with NATO, Yun 'explains the new approach,' said the note in a foretaste of Trump's repudiation of NATO and trust in Putin in dealing on Ukraine.
