A migration of fighter jets began across South Korea on July 28, as the first of 31 F-16s relocated from Kunsan Air Base to Osan Air Base, about 80 miles closer to the North Korean border.
By October, all 31 aircraft and about 1,000 Airmen will be reassigned to Osan as part of the second phase of a “Super Squadron” experiment aimed at testing if the larger unit will be more efficient at launching and maintaining jets.
The experiment is “a force-optimization test designed to see if a larger, consolidated squadron can generate more combat power and operate more efficiently,” Capt. Bryce Hughes, a maintenance officer and sortie generation flight commander at Osan, said in a July 31 press release.
The Air Force sent an initial batch of nine F-16s and 150 Airmen from Kunsan to Osan in October 2024, upping the number of F-16s there from 22 to 31. Osan sits about 50 miles south of the North Korean border.
That initial move marked the first phase of the project. The second phase starts this October and will assess the maintenance, manpower, and logistics requirements of a super squadron “at a larger scale,” the release explained. It will also bring the number of super squadrons at Osan up from one to two.
The experiment will run through October 2026. But the super squadrons are not the only new arrivals at Osan, which in July became the permanent home for an undisclosed number of F-16s formerly assigned to Misawa Air Base, Japan. That transfer is separate from the super squadron test, a spokesperson for Osan’s 51st Fighter Wing said at the time.
The F-16s take the place of Osan’s A-10 close air support aircraft, which are being retired from the base this year. Meanwhile, Misawa is shedding its F-16s to make room for F-35 stealth fighters that are slated to start arriving next spring.