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John Currin

15 years in Royal New Zealand Navy

South Korea, Japan, and the United States to Hold ‘Freedom Edge’ Joint Multi-Domain Exercise

A formation of ships from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Republic of Korea Navy maneuver in the Pacific Ocean during a trilateral exercise (TRILATEX). TRILATEX is intended to increase interoperability, operational proficiency and readiness between partnering nations. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Keith W. DeVinney/Released)

South Korea, Japan, And The United States To Hold ‘Freedom Edge’ Joint Multi-Domain Exercise

During the Shangri-La Dialogue 2024 held in Singapore from May 31st to June 2nd, the Defense chief of the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the United States agreed to hold joint multi-domain exercises this coming summer under the name ‘Freedom Edge’.

Eunhyuk Cha  05 Jun 2024

On June 2nd, the Defense Chiefs of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Japan, and the United States held a trilateral meeting during the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue 2024 in Singapore. During this meeting, the three countries released a joint statement announcing they will conduct a tri-nation exercise named “Freedom Edge” this summer. This exercise will involve simultaneous drills in various domains, including surface, underwater, air, and cyber warfare. As the first joint combined exercise that these three nations will conduct together, it demonstrates the growing cooperation between them and the improved relationship between South Korea and Japan.

The name of this new exercise, “Freedom Edge,” is a combination of two existing exercises: “Freedom Shield” (FS), an annual joint exercise conducted by South Korea and the United States simulating a North Korean invasion, and “Keen Edge,” a joint exercise conducted by the United States and Japan to respond to regional threats, including those from North Korea. The exact date and location of the “Freedom Edge” exercise have not been decided yet, but a local news outlet reported that the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) will take part in the upcoming exercise before its scheduled turnover with the USS George Washington (CVN 73).

Freedom Edge
Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and ROK Defense Minister Won-sik Shin at the trilateral meeting (ROK MND Photo)

The three Defense Chiefs agreed to conduct the “Trilateral Tabletop Exercise” (TTX) to discuss effective deterrence and response measures for various threats on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific region. Additionally, to institutionalize trilateral security cooperation, including high-level consultations, information sharing, trilateral exercises, and defense exchanges, they decided to establish the “Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework” by the end of the year.

Through this meeting, the ministers reaffirmed their commitment to trilateral security cooperation to deter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and to achieve the complete denuclearization of North Korea in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

Prior to the trilateral meeting, the Defense Chiefs of the Republic of Korea and Japan held a bilateral meeting on June 1st and reached an agreement on measures to prevent the recurrence of the 2018 patrol aircraft dispute that was considered a major obstacle to strengthening trilateral military cooperation among the Republic of Korea, the United States, and Japan. The measures to prevent the recurrence of the dispute included the prioritization of ten radio communication frequencies to ensure smooth communication between the naval vessels and aircraft of both nations during encounters at sea.

In a related development, with North Korea’s ever-growing nuclear capabilities, illegal arms trade, constant threats of sending balloons filled with waste and unidentified objects over the DMZ, and GPS disruptions, the Korean government has decided to suspend the ‘September 19th Military Agreement,’ which bans all hostile acts on the ground, sea, and air between the two Koreas. By officially strengthening military cooperation against the North Korean threat through combined military exercises, the security partners surrounding the Korean Peninsula will affirm their dedication to ensuring stability and peace in East Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region.

The 53rd iteration of NATO’s Baltic Operations series of exercises is set to be the alliance’s largest amid the inclusion of new members and security concerns with Russia.

USS Paul Ignatius (DDG -117), departs Kiel, Germany following exercise Baltic Operations 2023 (BALTOPS 23), June 19, 2023. US Navy Photo


Thirty warships from 20 nations have assembled over the past week at Klaipėda in Lithuania in preparation for NATO’s premier annual naval exercise in the Baltic Sea. Between June 7-20, four amphibious task groups and multinational task units composed of more than 50 vessels, 25 aircraft and 9,000 personnel from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States will participate in various maritime drills around the region.

Activities planned include antisubmarine warfare, gunnery drills, amphibious operations, mine clearing and medical responses.

“Year over year, BALTOPS delivers credible results in building our collective defense capability and the strength, agility and cohesion of the alliance,” Vice Admiral Thomas Ishee, commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet and Naval Striking Support Forces NATO, told reporters in a pre-sail conference at Klaipėda.

Since its inception in 1971, the exercise has increased in both size and complexity as NATO has accepted new members in the Baltics and faced a renewed threat from the east. BALTOPS 2024 will bring the largest assembly of amphibious and mine-hunting forces in the exercise’s history, according to a U.S. Navy release.

“If anything that Russia’s brutal aggression in Ukraine has shown us is that you have to be able to adapt to the environment in combat, so that’s a focus for me and both my U.S. command and NATO command,” said Ishee.

The 6th Fleet commander highlighted that Russia was still a capable adversary, citing its “significant capabilities” in the maritime domain, including antiaccess and area denial. From Kaliningrad, an enclave in the NATO Baltics, the Russian Baltic Fleet is stationed alongside numerous surface-to-air missiles and antiship systems.

While Sweden has participated in the exercise since the 1990s, 2024’s iteration will be the first to include the previously neutral country as a fully fledged NATO member. Stockholm previously committed to join the military alliance alongside Finland in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, the pressing challenges of Russian naval forces and what Sweden claims to be a fleet of merchant vessels equipped with surveillance equipment still remains.

In line with NATO’s collective defense principle, Ishee also stressed that Russian capabilities “are something that we [NATO] have to be concerned with as we work to defend all of the alliance, now including Finland and Sweden, which have a lot of the coastline in the Baltic Sea.”

Maritime lessons from the war in Ukraine were acknowledged by Ishee, who told reporters “We are very much aware of what’s going on in the Black Sea in the war between Russia and Ukraine.”

NATO’s new warfighting plans for the defense of the Euro-Atlantic Area will also be put into practice during the exercise.

Another first for this year’s BALTOPS will be the deployment of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command-assigned naval forces, according to a NATO press release. The specific assets being deployed from the combatant command were not specified.

Related

NATO

Royal Navy warship deployed to protect trade routes

HMS Duncan will replace HMS Diamond in the Middle East

Curtis Lancaster, BBC News

A Royal Navy warship, HMS Duncan, has deployed on a mission to protect international trade routes in the Middle East.

The vessel set off from Portsmouth on Sunday and headed towards the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

It will replace HMS Diamond, which has been protecting the region since before Christmas and which in April shot down a missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.

The Royal Navy said 200 men and women have worked to make HMS Duncan ready to deploy.

‘Our people will succeed’

Commanding Officer, Cdr Dan Lee, said: “I am immensely proud of the work the ship’s company have done to ready HMS Duncan for this important deployment.”

He said the Type 45 destroyer will be ready to work around the clock to “protect trade routes from Houthi attacks”.

“We have spent the past week readying the ship and saying our farewells to our families and loved ones who turned out to wave us off from Round Tower in Portsmouth.”

Cdr Lee added: “Our people will succeed on operations and support stability where tasked.”

LPhot Belinda Alker HMS Diamond being watched by people in Portsmouth as it sets sail for the Middle East
HMS Duncan set off from Portsmouth on Sunday bound for the Middle East

The Duncan spent five months leading a NATO task group in the Mediterranean Sea last year.

It has more than 60 new members of the crew for the latest deployment.

Among them is Able Rating 18-year-old Charles Henderson, a seaman on his first ship and first deployment.

He said: “I am immensely excited to be deploying but I’m highly focused on the operations ahead and ready to put all my training into practice.”

The ship will now carry out training in the Mediterranean before it sails through the Suez Canal towards the Red Sea and the coast of Yemen.

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