SEOUL — With spring around the corner and the weather starting to warm up, the U.S. and South Korean militaries are embarking on a series of drills — both joint and solo — slated to put more aircraft in the skies and armored vehicles on city streets.
On Monday, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense announced two military exercises of its own to take place during coming weeks.
In one of the drills, a dozen South Korean tanks and armored vehicles will travel this week on major roads in Seoul and the surrounding areas, the Capital Defense Command said. The exercise is designed to test drivers’ ability to move military vehicles on city streets.
The vehicles will be on the streets Tuesday and Saturday, officials said.
In the second exercise, South Korean jets and helicopters are drilling this week to defend against an air attack by North Korea, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff stated. According to a news release, the exercise is aimed at defending against enemy jets’ penetration of South Korean airspace.
Next week will see the beginning of Foal Eagle and RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration), the largest annual war games conducted by a joint U.S. and South Korean force.
Those exercises are scheduled to run from March 19 to March 25 at “multiple locations” throughout South Korea. RSOI is aimed at honing combined U.S. and South Korean forces’ ability to receive and integrate forces from outside the country.
Foal Eagle focuses on “rear area security and stability operations, onward movement of critical assets and select war-fighting training events.” This year will mark the 44th Foal Eagle exercise and the fourth time it’s been combined with RSOI, first held in 1994.
The joint exercise, “like all other [Combined Forces Command] exercises, is defense oriented and designed to improve the command’s ability to defend the [Republic of Korea] from external aggression,” a U.S. Forces Korea and Combined Forces Command news release stated last week.
North Korea denounced the exercise as a prelude to an invasion, saying it was a signal the United States was “throwing away the mask of ‘dialogue’ and ‘peace,’ revealing its aggressive nature again.”
