Foal Eagle

Foal Eagle 99

Nearly 530,000 U.S. and South Korean troops participated in Foal Eagle 99, one of the world's largest annual military training exercises. Participants in the 1999 Foal Eagle Exercise included ROK-US forces already stationed on the Korean peninsula, to-be-deployed augmentation forces from the US mainland, and administrative offices and reserve forces from the area where the exercise took place. The scenario for the 1999 exercise was an infiltration by North Korean Special Operation Forces into the rear area. It focused on ROK-US brigade-level force-on-force field training and combined amphibious landing operation.

The ROK Government and Combined Forces Command conducted the annual rear area field training exercise, Foal Eagle (FE99) from October 26 to November 5, 1999. FE99 was the 38th in a series of these regularly scheduled training exercises. The exercise was held at a variety of locations throughout the ROK and will involve the majority of U.S. and ROK forces on the peninsula. FE99 was designed to test rear area protection operations and major command, control and communications systems. It also provided hands-on field experience for forces of both nations. The exercise will involve about 500,000 ROK and more than 30,000 total U.S. forces, which includes those stationed in Korea and forces from off-peninsula. Most exercise training sites were located well south of the Seoul metropolitan area. Certain training events included firing blank ammunition and night operations.