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Fighter jets in the US and South Korean air forces fly in formation on June 7 in a show of force to North Korea. (provided by the Joint Chiefs)

On Tuesday, South Korea and the US mobilized 20 fighter jets for an airborne show of force over the West Sea in response to North Korea’s continuous launches of ballistic missiles. These latest exercises, paired with the joint US-South Korea launch of eight short-range missiles the previous day, are seen as part of an allied response to North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile activities.

“This joint South Korea-US air power demonstration was carried out by the ROK Air Force’s F-35A, F-15K and KF-16 equipped with precision-guided weapons. With 16 [Korean] combat aircraft and four US Air Force F-16 fighters participating, they formed a ‘strike package' in the airspace over the West Sea and conducted a flight that overwhelmingly responded to the threat of the enemy,” stated South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A strike package is a squadron of fighter planes with different capabilities launched together to perform a single attack mission. Strike packages usually carry out ground attack missions and the size of their forces varies depending on the mission.

The US Air Force’s strike package consists of bombers for attacking targets, escort fighters protecting enemy fighters from threats, suppression of enemy air defense aircraft and tactical reconnaissance aircraft to neutralize the enemy's anti-aircraft positions, in addition to electronic-warfare aircraft, aerial refueling aircraft, and early airborne warning aircraft.

The fighter jets that participated in the drill reportedly tempered their response by not actually firing, launching missiles, or dropping bombs.

The Joint Chiefs evaluated the joint exercise as a demonstration of South Korea and the US’ strong ability and will to strike quickly and accurately against any North Korean provocation by proving their combined defense capabilities and posture through this joint drill.

South Korea and the US have been conducting joint military drills in the air involving dozens of fighter jets from the two countries even after 2019, one year after the September 19 inter-Korean military agreement was signed. The Ministry of National Defense has maintained that the exercises do not violate the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement.

However, North Korea views the joint air exercises as violating the agreement and has warned that inter-Korean relations could be put in irreversible danger as a result.

The two Koreas have recently been engaged in increasingly aggressive tit-for-tat confrontation. When North Korea launched three missiles, including an intercontinental ballistic missile and a short-range ballistic missile, on May 25, the US and South Korean navies conducted a joint naval exercise involving a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier on the high seas southeast of Okinawa, Japan, from June 2-4.

Additionally, when North Korea fired eight short-range ballistic missiles on Sunday, South Korea and the US responded with eight of their own missiles the following day.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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