French Rafales and South Korean F-35As Deepen Strategic Airpower Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific
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South Korean F-35A stealth fighters trained alongside French Rafales at Cheongju Air Base in a three-day exercise launched on September 15, 2026, according to the Republic of Korea Air Force. The drills strengthened the two air forces’ ability to combine advanced fighters and tanker support in high-end missions, improving coalition flexibility and combat endurance across the Indo-Pacific.
A key sortie saw a French A330 MRTT refuel a South Korean F-35A while a ROKAF KC-330 supported two French Rafales, demonstrating that both forces can draw on partner tanker capacity during extended operations. Conducted as part of France’s PÉGASE 26 deployment, the exercise highlighted how cross-national refueling and tactical cooperation can help sustain combat aircraft over long distances and reduce reliance on purely national support chains.
Related Topic: France and Japan Build a Stronger Air Power Bridge Between Europe and the Indo-Pacific
South Korean F-35A stealth fighters trained alongside French Rafale F4s at Cheongju Air Base, testing joint combat tactics and reciprocal aerial refueling during France’s PÉGASE 26 deployment (Picture Source: Republic of Korea Air Force)
On September 15, 2026, the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) began a three-day joint air exercise with the French Air and Space Force at Cheongju Air Base, bringing South Korea’s F-35A stealth fighters into close tactical cooperation with French Rafale F4s. Conducted through September 17 as the Korean phase of France’s wider PÉGASE 26 deployment, the exercise combined frontline fighters and aerial-refueling aircraft from two highly capable air forces. According to the ROKAF announcement, the training was designed to strengthen combined operational capabilities and interoperability, but the F-35A–Rafale pairing gave the drills a wider significance: demonstrating how fifth-generation stealth aircraft and advanced European combat jets can operate within a common coalition framework.
South Korea committed an unusually diverse combat package comprising F-35A, F-15K, KF-16 and FA-50 fighters alongside a KC-330 Cygnus multirole tanker-transport, while France deployed two Rafale F4 fighters and an A330 MRTT Phénix. The exercise marked the second such French deployment to South Korea following the first PÉGASE-related engagement in 2023, but the participation of the ROKAF’s F-35A gave the 2026 edition added operational weight. Cheongju is particularly significant because it hosts South Korea’s 17th Fighter Wing and its operational F-35A force, meaning the French detachment was not simply visiting a convenient airfield but operating directly alongside one of the ROKAF’s most strategically important combat formations.
The F-35A and Rafale F4 embody different but potentially complementary approaches to high-end air combat. South Korea’s F-35A provides low observability, sophisticated sensors and advanced data-processing capabilities intended to support operations in heavily contested environments, while the Rafale F4 represents the latest operational evolution of France’s highly networked multirole fighter. The significance of putting them together lies less in comparing the two aircraft than in developing the procedures required for technologically different combat systems to contribute to the same tactical objective. During the exercise, Korean and French aircraft conducted tactical flights while divided into friendly and opposing forces, and aircrews exchanged views on tactical flying and aircraft operating methods. Neither air force disclosed classified details concerning direct sensor, datalink or mission-system integration between the F-35A and Rafale, so the exercise is best understood as evidence of growing tactical and procedural interoperability rather than proof of integration between sensitive combat networks.
The most tangible demonstration of that interoperability came not from formation imagery but from reciprocal aerial refueling. A French A330 MRTT Phénix refueled a South Korean F-35A, while the ROKAF’s KC-330 simultaneously supported two French Rafale F4s using its probe-and-drogue system. During the French tanker mission, the aircraft operated at roughly 500 km/h and around 7,000 meters while the Korean F-35A connected with the MRTT’s refueling boom, illustrating the precision required to make cross-national tanker support work in practice. This matters because coalition airpower is constrained as much by fuel, endurance and access as by fighter performance. The ability of a Korean stealth fighter to receive fuel from a French tanker, and French Rafales to depend on a Korean tanker, shows that both forces are working toward a model in which national combat aircraft are not tied exclusively to national support assets. In an Indo-Pacific theater defined by immense distances, that compatibility can directly translate into greater endurance, deployment flexibility and resilience.
The Cheongju drills must also be viewed within the larger architecture of PÉGASE 26, rather than as an isolated bilateral encounter. France launched the seventh edition of the mission with approximately 300 personnel, four Rafales, three A330 MRTTs and two A400M Atlas transports, with the deployment running from September 8 to October 15 and covering more than 40,000 kilometers from the Arctic through the Indo-Pacific and onward toward the Middle East. The French Ministry of the Armed Forces describes PÉGASE 26 as both an operational-readiness mission and a demonstration of France’s ability to rapidly project credible aerospace power over strategic distances. In that context, Cheongju became more than another stop on a global itinerary: it demonstrated that French combat aviation could reach Northeast Asia, operate from a sophisticated partner air base, integrate with a fifth-generation fighter force and sustain operations through reciprocal tanker support. France also explicitly presents itself as a sovereign Indo-Pacific nation, making cooperation with South Korea part of a broader effort to maintain operational access, partnerships and freedom of action across the region.
For South Korea, the exercise demonstrated an equally important form of strategic maturity. The ROKAF successfully received a long-range French deployment, integrated Rafales with four different Korean fighter types and executed mutual tanker operations while also conducting tactical training between the two forces. Seoul’s security architecture remains centered on its alliance with the United States, but exercises such as PÉGASE broaden the number of advanced air forces with which Korean pilots, planners and support crews have developed operational familiarity. For France, the training showed that long-range power projection can be converted into usable coalition airpower once deployed thousands of kilometers from metropolitan France. That message was reinforced on September 16 when three South Korean F-35As and two French Rafales flew together over the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, linking contemporary high-end air cooperation with France’s contribution during the Korean War. Coming during the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between South Korea and France, the exercise underscored a partnership increasingly expressed not only through diplomatic symbolism, but through measurable military interoperability.
The strategic value of the Cheongju exercise ultimately extends beyond the striking image of French Rafales flying alongside South Korean stealth fighters. Modern coalition air warfare depends on whether aircraft built around different technologies, doctrines and national support structures can plan, fly, refuel and operate together under a common tactical framework. By combining the F-35A, Rafale F4 and reciprocal A330/KC-330 tanker operations, South Korea and France exercised precisely those less visible mechanisms that transform advanced aircraft from individual national assets into a more flexible multinational force.
For Seoul and Paris, that represents a meaningful step in an already deepening defense relationship. For the wider Indo-Pacific, the message is equally important: credible military cooperation is increasingly measured not only by the sophistication of individual platforms, but by the ability of geographically distant partners to rapidly connect their combat and support capabilities. At Cheongju, South Korea and France demonstrated that coalition coherence is built in the air, through shared procedures, tactical familiarity, logistical compatibility and the ability to sustain one another’s fighters when distance and operational complexity become decisive.
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Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
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South Korean F-35A stealth fighters trained alongside French Rafales at Cheongju Air Base in a three-day exercise launched on September 15, 2026, according to the Republic of Korea Air Force. The drills strengthened the two air forces’ ability to combine advanced fighters and tanker support in high-end missions, improving coalition flexibility and combat endurance across the Indo-Pacific.
A key sortie saw a French A330 MRTT refuel a South Korean F-35A while a ROKAF KC-330 supported two French Rafales, demonstrating that both forces can draw on partner tanker capacity during extended operations. Conducted as part of France’s PÉGASE 26 deployment, the exercise highlighted how cross-national refueling and tactical cooperation can help sustain combat aircraft over long distances and reduce reliance on purely national support chains.
Related Topic: France and Japan Build a Stronger Air Power Bridge Between Europe and the Indo-Pacific
South Korean F-35A stealth fighters trained alongside French Rafale F4s at Cheongju Air Base, testing joint combat tactics and reciprocal aerial refueling during France’s PÉGASE 26 deployment (Picture Source: Republic of Korea Air Force)
On September 15, 2026, the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) began a three-day joint air exercise with the French Air and Space Force at Cheongju Air Base, bringing South Korea’s F-35A stealth fighters into close tactical cooperation with French Rafale F4s. Conducted through September 17 as the Korean phase of France’s wider PÉGASE 26 deployment, the exercise combined frontline fighters and aerial-refueling aircraft from two highly capable air forces. According to the ROKAF announcement, the training was designed to strengthen combined operational capabilities and interoperability, but the F-35A–Rafale pairing gave the drills a wider significance: demonstrating how fifth-generation stealth aircraft and advanced European combat jets can operate within a common coalition framework.
South Korea committed an unusually diverse combat package comprising F-35A, F-15K, KF-16 and FA-50 fighters alongside a KC-330 Cygnus multirole tanker-transport, while France deployed two Rafale F4 fighters and an A330 MRTT Phénix. The exercise marked the second such French deployment to South Korea following the first PÉGASE-related engagement in 2023, but the participation of the ROKAF’s F-35A gave the 2026 edition added operational weight. Cheongju is particularly significant because it hosts South Korea’s 17th Fighter Wing and its operational F-35A force, meaning the French detachment was not simply visiting a convenient airfield but operating directly alongside one of the ROKAF’s most strategically important combat formations.
The F-35A and Rafale F4 embody different but potentially complementary approaches to high-end air combat. South Korea’s F-35A provides low observability, sophisticated sensors and advanced data-processing capabilities intended to support operations in heavily contested environments, while the Rafale F4 represents the latest operational evolution of France’s highly networked multirole fighter. The significance of putting them together lies less in comparing the two aircraft than in developing the procedures required for technologically different combat systems to contribute to the same tactical objective. During the exercise, Korean and French aircraft conducted tactical flights while divided into friendly and opposing forces, and aircrews exchanged views on tactical flying and aircraft operating methods. Neither air force disclosed classified details concerning direct sensor, datalink or mission-system integration between the F-35A and Rafale, so the exercise is best understood as evidence of growing tactical and procedural interoperability rather than proof of integration between sensitive combat networks.
The most tangible demonstration of that interoperability came not from formation imagery but from reciprocal aerial refueling. A French A330 MRTT Phénix refueled a South Korean F-35A, while the ROKAF’s KC-330 simultaneously supported two French Rafale F4s using its probe-and-drogue system. During the French tanker mission, the aircraft operated at roughly 500 km/h and around 7,000 meters while the Korean F-35A connected with the MRTT’s refueling boom, illustrating the precision required to make cross-national tanker support work in practice. This matters because coalition airpower is constrained as much by fuel, endurance and access as by fighter performance. The ability of a Korean stealth fighter to receive fuel from a French tanker, and French Rafales to depend on a Korean tanker, shows that both forces are working toward a model in which national combat aircraft are not tied exclusively to national support assets. In an Indo-Pacific theater defined by immense distances, that compatibility can directly translate into greater endurance, deployment flexibility and resilience.
The Cheongju drills must also be viewed within the larger architecture of PÉGASE 26, rather than as an isolated bilateral encounter. France launched the seventh edition of the mission with approximately 300 personnel, four Rafales, three A330 MRTTs and two A400M Atlas transports, with the deployment running from September 8 to October 15 and covering more than 40,000 kilometers from the Arctic through the Indo-Pacific and onward toward the Middle East. The French Ministry of the Armed Forces describes PÉGASE 26 as both an operational-readiness mission and a demonstration of France’s ability to rapidly project credible aerospace power over strategic distances. In that context, Cheongju became more than another stop on a global itinerary: it demonstrated that French combat aviation could reach Northeast Asia, operate from a sophisticated partner air base, integrate with a fifth-generation fighter force and sustain operations through reciprocal tanker support. France also explicitly presents itself as a sovereign Indo-Pacific nation, making cooperation with South Korea part of a broader effort to maintain operational access, partnerships and freedom of action across the region.
For South Korea, the exercise demonstrated an equally important form of strategic maturity. The ROKAF successfully received a long-range French deployment, integrated Rafales with four different Korean fighter types and executed mutual tanker operations while also conducting tactical training between the two forces. Seoul’s security architecture remains centered on its alliance with the United States, but exercises such as PÉGASE broaden the number of advanced air forces with which Korean pilots, planners and support crews have developed operational familiarity. For France, the training showed that long-range power projection can be converted into usable coalition airpower once deployed thousands of kilometers from metropolitan France. That message was reinforced on September 16 when three South Korean F-35As and two French Rafales flew together over the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, linking contemporary high-end air cooperation with France’s contribution during the Korean War. Coming during the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between South Korea and France, the exercise underscored a partnership increasingly expressed not only through diplomatic symbolism, but through measurable military interoperability.
The strategic value of the Cheongju exercise ultimately extends beyond the striking image of French Rafales flying alongside South Korean stealth fighters. Modern coalition air warfare depends on whether aircraft built around different technologies, doctrines and national support structures can plan, fly, refuel and operate together under a common tactical framework. By combining the F-35A, Rafale F4 and reciprocal A330/KC-330 tanker operations, South Korea and France exercised precisely those less visible mechanisms that transform advanced aircraft from individual national assets into a more flexible multinational force.
For Seoul and Paris, that represents a meaningful step in an already deepening defense relationship. For the wider Indo-Pacific, the message is equally important: credible military cooperation is increasingly measured not only by the sophistication of individual platforms, but by the ability of geographically distant partners to rapidly connect their combat and support capabilities. At Cheongju, South Korea and France demonstrated that coalition coherence is built in the air, through shared procedures, tactical familiarity, logistical compatibility and the ability to sustain one another’s fighters when distance and operational complexity become decisive.
Explore More Defense News
• Land Defense News
• Naval Defense News
• Defense Aerospace News
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
