The U.S. Marine Corps and South Korea joined for Exercise Ssang Yong 24 on Monday along the coastal area of Songra-myeon, Pohang, South Korea with four big-deck amphibious ships — two U.S. and two Korean.
The exercise, held from Aug. 26 – Sept. 7, involved more than 13,000 personnel from South Korea and the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, as well as the U.K. Commando Force, which is participating for a second consecutive year, a Monday U.S. Marine Corps release reads.
The focus of the exercise is perfecting combined-joint forcible entry operations. In the scenario, coalition forces will neutralize key enemy facilities to end a hypothetical conflict. The Navy and Marine Corps of both countries held joint amphibious exercises followed by land-based operations to rehearse eliminating enemy forces.
The amphibious landing drill involved a division-sized landing force. South Korea deployed Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) amphibious assault ships ROK Dokdo (LPH-6111) and ROKS Marado (LPH-1112) along with 20 other ROKN ships, while the U.S. deployed amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD-4) and amphibious assault carrier USS America (LHA-6) for the drill. Thirty aircraft, such as the Republic of Korea (ROK) Marine Corps’ MUH-1 “Marineon” helicopters, U.S. F-35B Lightning II fighter aircraft and ROK Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters also took part in the drill. Amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49), part of the Boxer ARG, is also taking part in Ssang Yong 24, though the release did not mention if it participated in the amphibious landing.
The exercise also included the first deployment of a combined South Korea-U.S. battle staff, which commanded amphibious operations from Marado. The combined battle staff is assessing command-and-control capabilities and developing lessons for future operations, according to the release.
The amphibious landing drill included simultaneous amphibious and airborne simulated assaults, with reconnaissance units from the ROK Drone Operations Command providing real-time intelligence, while reconnaissance forces from the ROK, U.S. Marines and Royal Marines infiltrated the objective area via sea and air to conduct surveillance and guide precision strike rehearsals.
This was followed by close air support provided by Marine Corps F-35Bs and AH-1Z Viper helicopters launched from land and sea. Amphibious forces subsequently stormed the beaches in ROK assault amphibious vehicles and U.S. amphibious combat vehicles (ACVs) to establish a beachhead, followed by the deployment of armored vehicles via U.S. Navy and ROKN landing craft including landing craft, air cushion hovercraft and tank landing ships. The airborne assault involved a tactical airdrop from ROK Air Force C-130 transport aircraft, while the U.S. Marine Corps’ MV-22 Osprey, ROK Marine Corps’ MUH-1, ROK Army CH-47 Chinooks and ROKN UH-60 helicopters rehearsed air assaults maneuvers.
Following the amphibious assault, the ROK Marine Corps’ logistics units established a division-level combat service support area on the beach to sustain land operations with the landing forces then transitioning to land-based operations. “Rehearsing this kind of combined joint forcible entry training with an amphibious landing, then follow-on operations, is very important because of how complex they are. The defense of the Korean Peninsula depends on our ROK-U.S. forces to continuously work together, shoulder-to-shoulder, including this Ssang Yong and into the future,” said Lt. Col. Gabriel Tiggs, executive officer of the 31st MEU, in the release.
The exercise also marked the first time the ACV has been deployed in South Korea., “Significantly, Ssang Yong 24 is the first time the U.S. Marine Corps’ next-generation Amphibious Combat Vehicle is employed in an exercise on the Korean Peninsula, conducting joint amphibious operations with the ROK Marine Corps. Furthermore, the ROK Marine Corps’ MUH-1 helicopters have undergone deck-landing qualifications on U.S. vessels for the first time,” read the release.
Ssang Yong 24 is a rare occasion when the lead big-deck ships of two U.S Navy ARGs and their embarked respective MEUs participated together in an exercise in the Indo-Pacific, namely Boxer with the embarked 15th MEU of the Boxer ARG and America with its embarked 31st MEU of the America ARG. Problems with the current state of the Navy’s amphibious ships and the loss of USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) to a ship fire in July 2020 have limited ARG deployments from the West Coast to the Indo-Pacific alongside the forward-deployed America ARG. Boxer had to delay its deployment earlier this year, leaving San Diego in April but returning back because of engineering problems, only resuming its deployment in July. The Boxer ARG only consists of Boxer and Harpers Ferry, as amphibious transport dock USS Somerset (LPD-25), the third ship of the Boxer ARG, deployed in January. Somerset wrapped up its deployment on Aug. 13 when it returned to San Diego. Amphibious transport dock USS Green Bay (LPD-20) and its embarked 31st MEU elements of the America ARG is currently in the Java Sea, taking part in the U.S.-Indonesia exercise Super Garuda Shield 2024.
