Recent U.S. military airlift activity at a major air base in South Korea has drawn attention to the possibility that air defense assets assigned to United States Forces Korea (USFK) have been redeployed to the Middle East. According to the real-time flight tracking website Flightradar24 Sunday, U.S. Air Force C-5 and C-17 transport aircraft that landed at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, in late February departed in a series of flights earlier this month. Particular attention has focused on the C-5 Galaxy, which is larger than the C-17. At least two C-5 aircraft arrived at the base in late February and were seen departing on Feb. 28 and last Monday. Their final destinations were not listed, but flight records indicate journeys lasting more than 14 hours, raising the possibility that they continued on to the U.S. mainland or the Middle East. While C-17 aircraft routinely stop at Osan to transport U.S. troops and equipment, the arrival of the much larger C-5 aircraft is considered unusual. Reports earlier indicated that USFK had relocated some Patriot air defense systems fro