Rear Area Operations Command to Be Launched
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Army plans to create a combined rear area operations command next month as part of efforts to build a streamlined military with high-tech weapons systems, the Ministry of National Defense said Tuesday.
The plan is in line with the country's military modernization program, Defense Reform 2020 initiative, under which the current 680,000-strong forces is to be reduced to 500,000 by 2020.
The inauguration ceremony for the 2nd Operations Command, to be based in Daegu, 300 kilometers south of Seoul, will take place on Nov. 1, Jung Geun-bae at the ministry's military restructuring bureau said.
Under the plan, the current 2nd Army Command will be expanded after absorbing two Army corps _ the 9th and 11th. Gen. Park Young-ha, commander of the 2nd Army Command, will take charge of the new operations command.
``The inauguration of rear area operations command is aimed at building smaller but more effective command and control system suitable for future warfare,'' Jung told reporters.
The Army plans to inaugurate a forward area operations command by 2010 after consolidating the current 1st and 3rd Army Commands.
Defense Reform 2020 calls for reducing the number of Army corps and divisions from 10 to six and 47 to 20, respectively.
The Air Force plans to inaugurate a forward area air combat command by 2010. The Air Force now has a rear area air combat command.
The Navy plans to set up a strategic mobile squadron consisting of Aegis-equipped destroyers, advanced submarines and frigates by 2010 in an effort to develop its blue-water capability.
A submarine operations command is to be inaugurated by 2015.