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By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korean and U.S. troops will hold their annual joint exercises in multiple locations throughout South Korea from March 9 to 20, the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) announced Wednesday.
The Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercises will involve about 12,000 U.S. troops stationed here and 14,000 from off-peninsula, along with South Korean troops, CFC officials said.
The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) of the U.S. Navy's 3rd Fleet will participate in the large-scale drills, they said.
The 97,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is the seventh Nimitz-class supercarrier named for Senator John C. Stennis of Mississippi.
It carries F/A-18 Hornet, EA-6B Prowler and E-2 Hawkeye aircraft, and MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters. It has a top speed in excess of 30 knots.
``The United Nations Command (UNC) notified the North Korean Armed Forces that this exercise is defense-oriented, focusing on a military readiness posture,'' the UNC said in a news release.
The Key Resolve exercise, formerly known as RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration), is a simulation-driven, defense-oriented combined command-post exercise intended to evaluate the allied forces' capability to receive forces from bases outside the country in the case of an emergency on the peninsula.
Foal Eagle is a theater-wide combined field exercise. It involves massive joint field exercises, including rear area security and stability operations, special operations, ground maneuvers, amphibious operations and combat air operations.
Approximately 20,000 South Korean troops from corps-level units of the Army, Navy and Air Force are to take part in the Foal Eagle exercise, according to officials from Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
North Korea regularly denounces joint drills by South Korea and the United States as a rehearsal for invading the North.
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr
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