Amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula, Max Thunder, the USAF-South Korean air force joint exercise, aims to forge interoperability, while rehearsing rapid forward deployment of large-sized forces during a conflict. During the Red Flag-style exercise, which runs through Friday, nearly 50 combat aircraft, including South Korean F-4Es, F-15Ks, and KF-16s as well as USAF F-16s from the 80th Fighter Squadron at Kunsan Air Base, will converge on South Korea’s southernmost operating location, Kwangju Air Base. The week-long exercise is testing the ability of these assets “to deploy to and operate from a bare-base location,” explained Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, 80th FS commander. It is also gauging Kwangju’s ability to accommodate follow-on elements from four South Korean fighter wings and USAF units from Kunsan, Osan Air Base, and Eielson AFB, Alaska. (Kunsan report by MSgt. Claudette Hutchinson)
Due to the prolonged delay in deliveries of the Tech Refresh 3 version of the F-35 fighter, Denmark is pulling six of its TR-2-configured F-35 jets stationed in the U.S. back to home base in order to consolidate aircraft and get better training for its pilots and maintainers, the Danish…