F-15C

The US will deploy B-1B Lancer bombers over Korean Peninsula for joint aerial drills with U.S. and South Korean fighters, Yonhap News reports, citing military authorities.

The B-1B squadron will fly from the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam today, and will be deployed to participate in the United States Air Force's "Vigilant Ace"  which as we reported over the weekend is the “largest-ever” joint US aerial drill to be held together with South Korea. The squadron of tactical bombers will practice bombing runs under the cover of South Korean warplanes.

As tensions between North Korea and the U.S. continue to escalate with every Trump tweet and subsequent response by Kim Jong-Un, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said that the U.S. has prepared "four or five different scenarios" for how the crisis with North Korea will be resolved, adding ominously that “some are uglier than others." 

North Korea appears to be following through with its threat to shoot down US fighter jets and bombers that travel near its airspace, as US jets and bombers did on Saturday, according to a Yonhap report - the latest sign that North Korea intends to follow through with threats made by Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho during a speech outside the UN on Monday.

Just before North Korea’s foreign minister was due to address the United Nations, the Pentagon announced that U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers escorted by fighter jets flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea on Saturday, in a show of force which "demonstrated the range of military options available to President Donald Trump." The flight was the farthest north of the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea that any U.S. fighter jet or bomber has flown in the 21st century, the Pentagon added.

The US has deployed around 350 airmen and a dozen F-15C fighter jets to Iceland and the NetherlanDs as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve (OAR). The Pentagon’s is attempting to demonstrate a show of force, designed to deter what the US  has called ‘Russian aggression’ against Europe. However, Moscow says the Western hawks are simply using the perceived Russian threat in order to justify greater military spending.