The U.S. and South Korean military’s Space Integrated Team participated for the first time in the Korea-U.S. Combined Air Force Training (KFT), learning procedures to support missions and operations in space.
According to the Air Force on the 24th, the ROK Air Operations Command’s Space Operations Squadron and the U.S. Space Force in Korea (USSFK) formed a Space Integrated Team and participated in the KFT held at the Gunsan Air Force Base in North Jeolla Province from the 12th to the 26th of this month.
The Space Integrated Team monitored and responded to enemy satellite communication interference and conducted training to enhance the accuracy of South Korean GPS systems. They also simulated and responded to enemy GPS jamming provocations in various missions during the training, such as attack squadrons and emergency target handling.
The team jointly analyzed information collected through the U.S. Space Force’s space surveillance assets, providing real-time jamming coordinates and impact information to allied forces. This information enables U.S.-ROK Air Force fighters to precisely target the origin of jamming in enemy areas.
The Space Integrated Team also discussed how to utilize the South Korean military’s reconnaissance satellites, which will be operational in the future, in actual missions and operations. The South Korean military successfully launched the second reconnaissance satellite this month following the first one in December last year.
Colonel Park Jeong Geun, Preparatory Commander for the Space Operations Squadron of the Air Operations Command, stated, “Participating in this training demonstrated the integrated operational capabilities of space forces between the two countries in responding to enemy provocations in various domains such as space, cyber, and electromagnetic.” He added, “In the future, the Space Integrated Team will actively participate in various combined and joint training sessions to ensure space operations become a pivotal element in successfully conducting air operations on the Korean Peninsula.”
Established in 2022, the Air Operations Command’s Space Operations Squadron plays a key role in developing national space capabilities and realizing space security. Operating from four Air Force units, it utilizes an electro-optical surveillance system to monitor space objects and communicate identified space threats.
To strengthen situation awareness and response capabilities in the space domain, the Space Operations Squadron is planned to be expanded and established as a Space Operations Group this year.
