Published: 9th Mar, 2023
Context
The South Korean and U.S. militaries announced to hold their biggest joint field exercises in five years, as the U.S. flew a long-range B-1B bomber to the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against North Korea.
Background:
- The two countries last conducted Foal Eagle in 2018.
- Recently, both the countries have been expanding their joint military exercises in the face of an evolving North Korean nuclear threat.
- The United States flew a supersonic bomber over ally South Korea as part of an enormous combined aerial exercise involving hundreds of warplanes in a show of force meant to intimidate North Korea over its barrage of ballistic missile tests.
- The US has fired B-1B missiles demonstrated its determination and ability to use the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend its allies.
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North Korea is highly sensitive to the deployment of B-1Bs, which are capable of carrying a large conventional weapons payload.
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Details of the exercise:
- The South Korean and U.S. military will conduct the Freedom Shield exercise, a computer-simulated command post training, to strengthen their defense and response capabilities, and separate large-scale joint field training exercises called ‘Warrior Shield FTX.’
- It is going to be conducted from March 13 to 23, 2023.
Why such an exercise being conducted?
- North Korea test-fired more than 70 missiles in the year 2022, the most ever in a single year, and several more this year.
- Many of the missiles were nuclear-capable weapons designed to strike the U.S. mainland and South Korea.
- The Hwasong-15 is one of North Korea's three existing ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles), all of which use liquid propellants that require pre-launch injections and cannot remain fueled for extended periods.
- The North is pushing to build a solid-fuelled ICBM, which would be more mobile and harder to detect before its launch.
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