South Korea and the U.S. Begin Ulchi Freedom Shield Joint Exercise 'Enhanced Surveillance Against North Korean Provocations'

Evaluation of Future Combined Forces Command's Capability for Phase 2 Wartime OPCON by Next Month 1
Strengthening Surveillance and Readiness Against North Korea

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] The South Korean and U.S. military authorities commenced the joint exercise ‘Ulchi Freedom Shield’ (UFS) on the 22nd.

North Korea has vehemently condemned the UFS through its propaganda media and raised the possibility of military provocations during the exercise period, including launching a cruise missile on the 17th.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the military on the 22nd, the UFS, which runs until the 1st of next month, consists of two parts: Part 1 involves transitioning to wartime posture to practice repelling North Korean attacks and defending the Seoul metropolitan area, and Part 2 focuses on mastering counterattacks and retaliatory operations to secure the safety of the metropolitan area.

Since 2019, the government exercise (Ulchi), which had been conducted separately from the South Korea-U.S. joint exercises focusing on non-military crises such as disasters, has been integrated with the Part 1 military exercise and is conducted over three nights and four days. Prior to the main exercise, the South Korea-U.S. forces conducted a four-day crisis management exercise from the 16th to the 19th.

The government and military are known to have strengthened surveillance and readiness against North Korean provocations such as missile launches during this exercise period.

Through this UFS, the government and military plan to enhance their ability to conduct a national total war in preparation for North Korea’s localized provocations and full-scale war by mastering crisis management at the whole-of-government level and joint operation support procedures.

This UFS incorporates realistic scenarios that could occur during wartime, reflecting changes in new warfare patterns such as drones and cyber warfare observed in the Ukraine conflict to enhance the realism of the joint exercise.

Assuming enemy attacks on key industrial facilities and national critical infrastructure such as ports, airports, and semiconductor factories, protection drills and damage recovery exercises involving civilian, government, military, and police sectors are also conducted concurrently.

In Part 2 of the exercise, counterattacks and retaliatory operations are practiced to secure the safety of the metropolitan area.

The Ministry of National Defense explained that the exercise will not be limited to command post exercises (CPX) based on computer simulations but will include various tactical-level, realistic joint field training exercises (FTX) by units and functions.

A total of 13 exercises will be conducted, including the Joint Science Combat Training (brigade-level), Joint Weapons of Mass Destruction Elimination Training (battalion-level), and Joint Special Warfare Exchange Training (small scale).

During the exercise period, the South Korea-U.S. forces will also conduct an evaluation of the Full Operational Capability (FOC) of the Future Combined Forces Command to meet the conditions for the wartime operational control transfer plan based on conditions.

The FOC evaluation corresponds to the intermediate stage of the three-step evaluation?Initial Operational Capability (IOC), FOC, and Full Mission Capability (FMC)?which assesses the theater operation capability of the Future Combined Forces Command led by a four-star general of the Republic of Korea Army.

Out of 73 Combined Mission Essential Task Lists (CMETL) of the Future Combined Forces Command, 49 will be evaluated, and a joint South Korea-U.S. evaluation team of about 60 members will jointly derive the evaluation results.

Considering the resurgence of COVID-19, the exercise will be conducted in compliance with quarantine guidelines such as pre-exercise genetic (PCR) testing, self-testing two to three times a week, mask-wearing, and social distancing.

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