The US military adjusts South Korea's F-16 deployment, ends the "Super Squadron" experiment and returns to the decentralized mode

The U.S. Air Force once concentrated 31 F-16 fighters at Osan Air Force Base in South Korea for testing, but now it is gradually dispersing the fighters back to Gunsan Base. This adjustment, which seems to "dismantle" combat capabilities, is actually testing the difference between centralized deployment and decentralized deployment, allowing the F-16 to maintain combat capabilities at different bases.

The military news website "Army Recognition" reported that the U.S. Air Force released the latest images on September 28, showing an F-16 flying from Osan Base to Gunsan Base on September 15. This is part of the U.S. military's readjustment of F-16 deployment in South Korea. This operation also means that the US military's "Super Squadron" experiment, which previously concentrated F-16s, is gradually returning to a decentralized deployment mode.

In 2024, the US military transferred 9 F-16s from the 8th Fighter Wing of Gunsan to the 36th Fighter Squadron of Osan, expanding the squadron to 31 fighters and equipped with about 150 flight and logistics personnel to test whether the concentration of a large number of fighters in a single base can improve sorties, training, maintenance and logistics efficiency.

After centralized testing, the US military switched to the "dispersion card"

In April this year, the U.S. Pacific Air Force Command requested the 7th Air Force to restore the structure of three F-16 squadrons, located at Osan and Gunsan bases. The U.S. military believes that maintaining separate fighter units in the two places will eliminate the need to rely entirely on a single base for dispatch, maintenance and supply of fighter aircraft, and increase the flexibility of dispatch in times of crisis.

For the fighter force, this dispersion also means that even if the runway or facilities at one base are damaged, some combat capabilities can still be maintained at the other base. The Gunsan base even conducted exercises to allow F-16s to take off and land on taxiways when the main runway was unavailable to train troops to maintain continuous dispatch capabilities.

Currently, the 35th and 80th Fighter Squadrons at Gunsan Base operate F-16C/D fighters, and their missions cover air supremacy, strategic attack, denial and close air support. The U.S. military's reallocation of fighter aircraft this time does not mean abandoning the previous centralized deployment experiment, but incorporating the test results into a new deployment method to strike a balance between the efficiency brought by concentrated combat power and the resilience provided by decentralized deployment.