Senior Taiwanese military personnel observed a US-led joint air exercise alongside the South Korean and Japanese air forces in Alaska, a now-removed image published on Tuesday by the Pentagon showed.
The caption of the image — which has since been removed from the US military’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service — said that senior-ranking military observers from Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, the UK and Canada on Friday last week gathered at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to observe the Red Flag-Alaska 25-2 exercise.
The exercise involved an estimated 1,500 personnel and 70 aircraft from the US, Japanese and South Korean air forces, the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) said in a news release.
Photo courtesy of the US Department of Defense
The drills aimed to strengthen multinational integration in support of the US Pacific Air Forces’ strategic objective of “credible, combat-ready forces capable of projecting power and deterring aggression in the region,” it said.
The exercise’s participants conducted offensive and defensive aerial operations in mock battles under “contested, degraded and operationally limited environments,” it said.
INDOPACOM emphasized the US strategic partnership with Japan and South Korea, saying that the exercise would “sharpen warfighting skills and enhance interoperability in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
“Red Flag Alaska 25-2 allows US military forces and our Pacific-based allies to safely train for a high-end fight, ensuring a lethal force prepared for deterrence,” said US Air Force Major Michael Dzyndra, the Red Flag-Alaska deployed forces deputy commander.
“We’re not just training together; we’re learning how to integrate more effectively to meet shared challenges head-on,” the release quoted him as saying.
“Red Flag-Alaska offers the Japan Air Self Defense Force a valuable opportunity to enhance interoperability intensively with the United States Air Force and other air forces of allied nations, while also deepening mutual understanding,” Japan Air Self Defense Force Air Support Commander Colonel Kazuhiro Nakajima said in the release.
The joint combat scenarios build the operational capability of participating units with the training occurring across the Joint Pacific-Alaska Range Complex, the Pacific Air Forces said.
The air drills build operational capability by training forces across the Joint Pacific-Alaska Range Complex, INDOPACOM said.
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