Two U.S. B-1B Lancers are escorted by South Korean 15K Slam Eagles and Japan Air Self-Defense Force Mitsubishi F-2s in airspace between South Korea and Japan, Jan. 15, 2025. (Stephanie Serrano/U.S. Air Force)
Japanese and South Korean fighters escorted U.S. bombers on a display of air power Wednesday in the skies over the Sea of Japan, or East Sea, according to Air Force Global Strike Command.
Two Mitsubishi F-2s of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and two F-15K Slam Eagles of the South Korean air force escorted a pair of Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers in a show of deterrence and interoperability, the command said in a news release that day.
The military uses the term interoperability to refer to the ability of one nation’s armed forces to use the equipment and training methods of another country’s military.
The escort flight was the first air power demonstration of the year by the three countries, according to the release. The flight “builds upon a history of strong trilateral cooperation, enabling an immediate coordinated response to regional security challenges.
“This increasingly steady and sophisticated trilateral interoperability of our aerial and maritime forces strengthens our collective deterrence and defense posture,” the release states.
Escort flights of this nature sometimes follow missile tests or other demonstrations of military strength by North Korea. In this case, the North on Tuesday tested several short-range ballistic missiles, according to the Japanese and South Korean militaries, which said they tracked the launches.
North Korea’s communist regime also fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Jan. 6, its first test of the new year. The state-run Korean Central News Agency described the missile as a hypersonic weapon, but the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff expressed skepticism of that claim in a statement that said the description was likely exaggerated.
The Air Force did not identify the Lancers’ home station, but it routinely sends bombers on long flights from the United States called bomber task force missions to demonstrate its ability to respond globally on behalf of its allies.
Two Lancers last flew in South Korea on air support drills at Pilsung Range, 100 miles southeast of Seoul, in October. One Lancer dropped bombs there in June during a live-fire exercise.
The flight occurred a day before President Joe Biden made his televised farewell address from the Oval Office. His administration strengthened military cooperation between Japan and South Korea as a response to security challenges from China, and diluting decades of hard feelings between the two lingering since World War II.
