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)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.