Buddy Wing brings Kunsan, ROKAF Airmen closer

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Gustavo Gonzalez
  • 8th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  United States and Korean Airmen took part in a series of aerial exercises here designed to increase understanding and interoperability between the two forces.

The "Buddy Wing" exercise and exchange program afforded 8th Fighter Wing F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots and Republic of Korea Air Force's 11 Fighter Wing F-15K Slam Eagle pilots the opportunity to introduce and review tactics and exchange ideas. The quarterly program, which ran from March 9 -12, also offered dissimilar airframe training opportunities.

"The buddy wing program is an opportunity for the USAF and the ROKAF pilots to fly together in a realistic training scenario to give us practice and an opportunity to work with one another, the same way we would if we were in a combat situation," said Lt. Col. Stephen Hickey, 8th Fighter Wing Safety Office. "They are going to be conducting a realistic training exercise that will give them an opportunity to work together, train together in a way we would eventually want fighting together if we ever needed to."

Twenty-two ROKAF maintainers and eight pilots came to Kunsan from Daegu, Republic of Korea, to participate in the exercise and work alongside more than 150 Wolf Pack maintainers and 25 pilots.

"The F-15K pilots are the premier ROKAF fighter pilots," said Capt. John Harris, 80th Fighter Squadron. "They are really, really good."

According to Col. J.D. "Wolf" Harris, 8th Fighter Wing commander, the Buddy Wing exercises are vital to the readiness of the Air Force and its allies to ensure they are battle-ready and trained for combined-joint operations.

"The benefit for the 8th fighter Wing is that we understand a little better how the Korean Air Force flies and operates so that we have better interoperability," he said. "We understand how their airplanes function, how those pilots think and how they work so that we can work better together when we are in the skies."

Both the ROKAF and USAF pilots faced challenges while conducting the joint air-to-air exercises, said Colonel Hickey.

"As the chief of safety, anytime you have dissimilar air craft flying together, and aircraft from different countries flying together, you're going to have challenges because some of the rules the ROKAF may use are going to be a little bit different than what we are used to," he said.

According to Colonel Harris, sharing the base with host nation military member sets the 8th Fighter Wing apart from other installations and offers some unique training opportunities.

"We are special in that here at Kunsan we are the only installation that has both ROKAF and U.S. Air Force fighters at the same base all the time," he said. "So we have a little bit of extra opportunity to train together and when we go somewhere we take that expertise to them, or when those ROKAF wings come to us, they bring that to us and we get a little bit better. Our goal is to actually bring our cultures closer together."

The ROKAF airmen departed the base March 12.