Two U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons complete a hot pit refueling during a Freedom Shield drill at Daegu Air Base, South Korea, Aug. 21, 2025. (Andrew Garavito/U.S. Air Force)
Three military exercises beginning this week in the Indo-Pacific region show the United States is serious about defending its interests against increasing aggression from China and North Korea, according to a defense analyst.
The drills include Freedom Shield on the Korean Peninsula; the Korean Marine Exercise Program involving U.S. and South Korean marines; and the Air Force’s first Beverly Midnight exercise linking all three of its Japan-based wings. Freedom Shield and Beverly Midnight run Monday through March 19, while the Korean Marine Exercise Program runs Sunday through April 9.
While there may not be a “huge significance” to the overlapping drills, they reflect ongoing training “taking place with a greater sense of urgency posed by the Chinese military threat to the region — and the longstanding North Korean threat to South Korea as well,” retired Marine Col. Grant Newsham told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday.
Newsham, a senior researcher with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo, said the Air Force exercise in particular signals that the U.S. military is preparing for potential high-end conflict.
Beverly Midnight is “further evidence the U.S. Air Force is getting ready for a fight — rather than just rote annual exercises that take place because ‘they’ve always taken place,’” he wrote.
The exercise combines annual combat training by the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa; the 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa Air Base in northeastern Japan; and the 374th Airlift Wing in western Tokyo, according to a March 2 news release from 5th Air Force.
A U.S. reconnaissance Marine holds security on an uncleared section of a subterranean hallway at LPP Gold Mine Training Area, South Korea, July 26, 2025. (Paley Fenner/U.S. Marine Corps)
“This exercise marks a pivotal moment for our forces in the region,” Lt. Gen. Stephen Jost, commander of U.S. Forces Japan and 5th Air Force, said in the release. “For the first time, we are synchronizing the distinct capabilities of our three wings across Japan, creating a single, integrated training environment.”
The combined training grew out of discussions at last year’s 5th Air Force commanders’ conference, and is “not in response or connected to any current event or other planned exercise,” 5th Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Tisha Yates wrote in an email Friday. It will include flight training, rapid airfield damage repair and crisis response at each of the wings, she said.
Freedom Shield — one of the two major U.S.-South Korean exercises held each year — involves training designed to improve readiness against potential attacks on the peninsula.
The Korean Marine Exercise Program will bring U.S. Marines together with their South Korean counterparts for tactical field training, according to a March 3 news release from the III Marine Expeditionary Force.
Drills will include HIMARS live-fire training, bilateral air delivery drops, and bilateral explosive ordnance disposal subject matter expert exchanges, III MEF spokesman 2nd Lt. James Selcke wrote in an email Saturday. The exercise normally occurs at the same time as Freedom Shield, and U.S. and Korean marines will participate in both simultaneously, he added.
“For more than 70 years, U.S. and [South Korean] Marines have maintained a strong relationship that has promoted regional security and enhanced our combined capability to respond to any potential challenge,” III MEF commander Lt. Gen. Roger Turner said in the release.
The exercises begin just as Iron Fist, amphibious training between the Marine Corps and Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force, concludes across Japan.
Taken together, Newsham said the drills demonstrate that U.S. and allied forces remain focused on deterrence in Asia.
“Despite the distractions of Iran and Ukraine, U.S. and allied forces in Japan and Korea have not lost sight of their mission — to defend against Chinese, North Korean, and Russian aggression — even if they won’t name these nations directly as threats,” he wrote.
