U.S.-South Korea Spring Joint Military Exercises Set for March
The combined drills, formally designated Freedom Shield, are scheduled to run for 11 days — from March 9 through March 19 — and will incorporate a series of ground-level field maneuvers conducted under the "Warrior Shield" training program, a news agency reported, drawing from a joint statement issued by South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and United States Forces Korea.
Senior military officials outlined that the exercises are structured to sharpen interoperability across every operational domain — land, sea, air, cyber, and space — through coordinated, multi-domain combat scenarios.
Officials further noted that the drills will advance the broader, long-standing objective of a "conditions-based" handover of combined wartime command authority to Seoul.
South Korea aims to complete all critical verification milestones required to assume full operational leadership of joint forces within the single five-year presidential term of President Lee Jae Myung, which expires in 2030.
Officials acknowledged that certain field training components may be scaled back relative to prior iterations of the exercise.
Washington has reportedly raised concerns over Seoul's push to pare down field activities — a move driven in part by the Lee administration's pursuit of diplomatic re-engagement with North Korea. Pyongyang has consistently denounced the joint drills as thinly veiled rehearsals for an invasion, a characterization both allies firmly reject, maintaining the exercises are purely defensive in scope.
Freedom Shield represents one half of the two cornerstone annual combined exercises conducted by the allied forces, the other being the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, held each August.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the
information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept
any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images,
videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information
contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright
issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
