By Chen Yue and Zhang Yini
Recently, an F-16 fighter jet of the US Forces Korea (USFK) crashed in Pyeongtaek, ROK, which was in succession to the tragedy of two Apache helicopters and two Black Hawk helicopters that happened not long ago. The successive plane crash accidents exposed the US military's vulnerability in equipment maintenance and support, and also reflected its military deterrence policy characterized by intensive exercises and training.
The US military has the largest number of fighter jets in the world and also the highest crash rate. It was reported by media that the F-16 plane alone had been involved in 383 Class A accidents since 1975, which caused 88 pilots to lose their lives. According to relevant statistics, frequent crashes of US military aircraft result from three main reasons.
First, the pilots are burdened with high-intensity and overloaded flight tasks. In a health overdraft condition, they are more susceptible to accidents, especially as the increasingly strengthened US military operations in recent years further exacerbated this struggling situation.
Second, the aging planes have not been given appropriate inspection and maintenance. Many US military warplanes have been in service for a long time, and are often overloaded during heavy training tasks. Aging aircraft parts that demand overhaul and more frequent maintenance are unbearable to undertake long uninterrupted operations.
Third, the management and security measures are insufficient. Some media have proposed doubts about the US warplane manufacturing industry. In addition, the US military also has weak points in pilot safety awareness cultivation, operation procedures and aircraft regular maintenance and other aspects during daily exercises and training.
Over the years, the US had continuously provoked great power competition by besiegement and containment policies, which triggered countermeasures from other countries and escalated the conflict situation. Meanwhile, the US stresses military deterrence and pressure and increasingly relies on military forces to defend its own interests, highlighting actual combat capability enhancement during the exercises. It proposed that the so-called Indo-Pacific region features the fiercest great power competition, which necessitates its integrated deterrence by employing huge regional advantages and unmatched alliance system. In this context, the US has conducted intensive and large-scale force projection exercises ranging from its territory area to forward bases while persistently boosting the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.
The US Indo-Pacific Command has also launched the Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability program to develop necessary, fully equipped, live virtual training sites in the Indo-Pacific region, connecting 33 existing test ranges and military bases of 11 countries including the US, Australia, Japan and the ROK in the Pacific and its coastal areas, to build hemispheric ranges as battlefields consolidating peacetime and wartime as well as training and warfare operations. Only on the Korean Peninsula, the scale and intensity of US-ROK joint exercises had reached a record high this year, with the US military deploying a number of strategic weapons including B-52H and B-1B in the Freedom Shield drill. And the two sides had agreed to further extend the joint military exercise in the summit meeting held in April 2023. Such high-intensity and overloaded training will inevitably aggravate the burdens on relevant personnel and equipment.
The Asia-Pacific region has gradually evolved into the main targeted battlefield of the US nowadays. It frequently intervenes in regional affairs, stresses to stand by its allies and partners and strengthens partnerships with them by conducting joint exercises and trading advanced weapons and equipment to send military deterrence signals. Clinging to the Cold War mentality, it keeps building and enhancing the "tripwire" based upon the AUKUS military alliance, the QUAD organization and the "Five Eyes" alliance. Subject to conflicts and contradictions continuously instigated by the US, this region is seen real challenges and potential risks gradually feeding into each other as well as nuclear deterrence and containment becoming evident, while the world has accelerated into a more volatile period of instability.
