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USFK aims to make Korea a 'regional sustainment hub' for U.S. military assets, says commander

Published: 23 Apr. 2026, 17:48

Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, speaks to reporters during a press conference at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi on Aug. 8, 2025. [YONHAP]

The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) aims to position Korea as a "regional sustainment hub" by leveraging the country's outstanding military production capabilities to expedite the repair and maintenance of U.S. military assets, the USFK commander said.

Gen. Xavier Brunson, who also serves as commander of the Combined Forces Command, made the remarks in a written document submitted to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, highlighting the prominence of Korea's defense industry in the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) sector.

"USFK, supported by partners from the Department of State, our military services and industry, is establishing a regional sustainment hub in support of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command," Brunson said in the document.

"Setting the theater for competition, crisis or conflict is essential," he said, noting the lessons learned from Covid-19 pandemic, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and technological innovations made supply lines more susceptible to disruption and interdiction.

The USFK commander praised Korea's defense industrial base as "one of the finest military production capabilities in the world," stressing that leveraging it to support MRO could mitigate the "tyranny of distance" across theaters.

Korea has conducted depot-level maintenance on common platforms, mostly U.S. fighter aircraft, such as the F-16, F-15, UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook, since 1978.

U.S. Forces Korea Stryker armored vehicles and Korean K200 armored vehicles are crossing a pontoon bridge during a combined exercise in Yeoju, Gyeonggi on Aug. 27, 2025. [YONHAP]

It has more recently sought to expand its services to U.S. maritime assets and other systems, such as Patriot missile defense batteries and the repair of T-55 aircraft engines.

The U.S. Department of Defense disclosed plans in 2024 to adopt the "regional sustainment framework," which would use MRO capabilities from partner nations rather than returning assets to the U.S. mainland for major repairs.

"We simply can't afford in cost and time to be able to send major end items all the way back to the United States to get repaired and then to be able to return" to Korea during a conflict, a U.S. military source said earlier this week.

The source said the U.S. military plans to leverage the "world-class" industrial base here on the Korean Peninsula to repair assets immediately and return them to the warfighter on the ground.

Yonhap