S. Korea, US to kick off large-scale combined air drills this week

Seoul [South Korea], April 16 : South Korea and the United States will kick off a large-scale regular joint air exercise this week, the South's Air Force said Sunday, in the latest drill meant to step up deterrence against North Korea's evolving military threats, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The 12-day Korea Flying Training will begin Monday, April 17 at the Gwangju Air Base in Gwangju, 267 kilometres south of Seoul, mobilizing some 110 aircraft and more than 1,400 troops, according to the armed service, Yonhap reported.

South Korea plans to deploy almost 60 warplanes, including F-35A, F-15K and KF-16 fighters and the KC-330 tanker transport aircraft, while the US will mobilize more than 40 aircraft, such as its Air Force's F-16 fighters, A-10 attack aircraft and the Marine Corps F-35B and FA-18 jets.

South Korea's Air Force said the drills will take place with a focus on enhancing the interoperability and combined operational capability of the allies' advanced fourth and fifth-generation fighters, such as the F-15K and radar-evading F-35 aircraft, respectively, Yonhap reported.

During the exercise, the allies will stage various training, including a strike package flight, defensive counter-air and close air support operations, it added.

"Through this exercise, (we) will be able to reaffirm the solid South Korea-US alliance and further develop the combined operational capability to another level," Col. Lee Beom-ki, chief of staff of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Air Force Operations Command said.

The allies have staged a series of combined air exercises this year amid Pyongyang's continued sabre-rattling, Yonhap reported.

Last Friday, they held joint air drills involving US B-52H strategic bombers, a day after Pyongyang test-fired what it claimed to be a solid-fuel Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile.

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