Soldiers give way to computers after Trump slashes Korea drills

Now, after President Donald Trump scrapped the biggest joint exercises, the bulk of the newly designed “Alliance” drill taking place through March 14 will involve senior officers sitting in front of computers for what’s known as a “command post exercise.”

In recent years, thousands of US and South Korean soldiers met face-to-face on a mock battlefield to prepare for a potential attack from North Korea.

Now, after President Donald Trump scrapped the biggest joint exercises, the bulk of the newly designed “Alliance” drill taking place through March 14 will involve senior officers sitting in front of computers for what’s known as a “command post exercise.” While the army won’t provide exact figures, many soldiers who took part in previous years will be on the sidelines.

“It’s like putting together a national baseball team by having professional players practice alone instead of together,” said Kim Ki-ho, a former colonel in South Korea’s army who oversaw military operation planning at the Combined Forces Command.

Kim said the first week of the discarded exercises — known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle — was typically spent training for defense against an attack, and the second week on launching counter-attacks. The benefits to officers and enlisted personnel came from being able to see how the overall command structures worked, he said.

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‘’If you conduct exercises among battalion levels or under, you don’t understand where you belong in the bigger picture,” said Kim, now a professor at Kyonggi University in South Korea. A battalion can typically involve 300 to 1,000 troops. The U.S. has about 28,000 troops in South Korea.

Read More: Pentagon Chief Sees U.S. Forces at Ideal Levels in South Korea