[Yang Nak-gyu's Defense video] Air Refueling Aircraft Deployed Across Various Battlefields

[Asia Economy Reporter Yang Nak-gyu] An Air Force aerial refueling aircraft will be deployed for the repatriation of the remains of South Korean soldiers who died in the Korean War, which were buried in North Korean territory and later excavated and transferred to Hawaii, USA. This is the first time since its introduction in 2018 that the KC-330 (Cygnus) aerial refueling aircraft has been used for overseas transport missions.

The Ministry of National Defense is currently in consultation with the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) regarding the timing and scale of the repatriation. It is reported that 120 remains will be repatriated and a repatriation ceremony will be held on June 24.

As the Air Force has significantly increased overseas expedition joint training from this year, it has decided to deploy the aerial refueling aircraft 'KC-330' for the first time in joint training. The multinational joint air force exercise Red Flag-Alaska will be held this October. The Red Flag-Alaska exercise, held four times annually, is a multinational joint tactical air combat training hosted by the U.S. Pacific Air Forces Command.

Since 2001, the Republic of Korea Air Force has participated in the Red Flag exercises only in the transport aircraft sector, and since 2013, it has also dispatched fighter jets. Until now, since the ROK Air Force did not possess aerial refueling aircraft, it had to rely on the U.S. military's support. The F-15K fighters participating in the exercise flew a distance of 8,100 km until their return, receiving aerial refueling 10 times from the U.S. Air Force's KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft en route.

However, starting this October, the plan is to deploy the KC-330 aerial refueling aircraft, introduced by the ROK Air Force from Europe’s Airbus. Since the first unit was introduced in January last year, up to the fourth unit has been fully operational. From the second half of this year, it is also expected to be deployed for some domestic operations. A military official stated, "We are promoting the participation of the aerial refueling aircraft in overseas expedition training, and the final approval will be decided soon."

The Air Force plans to deploy both the KC-330 and F-15K fighters in this year’s Red Flag exercise. In February last year, the flight of KF-16 fighters was temporarily suspended due to a KF-16D fighter crash accident, causing difficulties in preparing for exercise participation. Although the option to send F-15K fighters instead was considered, it was judged to be difficult, so only two transport aircraft were dispatched.

The KC-330, based on the Airbus civilian passenger aircraft A330-200, can carry 65 tons of cargo and has a range of 7,400 km. While its primary mission is aerial refueling, it is also capable of performing transport missions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.