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U.S., South Korea announce largest field exercises in five years
The North has threatened to take “unprecedently” strong action against such exercises. It’s likely that it will respond to the upcoming training with missile tests because it views it as an invasion rehearsal, AP reported.
In a joint news conference, the South Korean and U.S. militaries said they will conduct the Freedom Shield exercise, a computer-simulated command post training, from March 13 to 23 to strengthen their defense and response capabilities, and separate large-scale joint field training exercises called Warrior Shield FTX.
Col. Isaac L. Taylor, a spokesperson for the U.S. military, said the field training will include a combined amphibious drill and that their size would return to the scale of the allies’ earlier biggest springtime field exercises called Foal Eagle.
The two countries last conducted Foal Eagle in 2018. They then canceled or downsized some combined drills to support now-stalled diplomacy with North Korea and guard against the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, however, the two countries have been expanding their joint military exercises in the face of an evolving North Korean nuclear threat.
Friday’s deployment of a U.S. B-1B was the aircraft’s first such flyover in joint aerial training with South Korean warplanes since Feb. 19. North Korea is highly sensitive to the deployment of B-1Bs, which are capable of carrying a large conventional weapons payload. It responded to the previous flights of multiple B-1Bs by test-launching two short-range missiles the next day.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the use of a B-1B demonstrated the U.S. determination and ability to use the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend its allies.