SEOUL, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Two U.S. strategic bombers had gone back on Wednesday to their base after making a sortie to South Korea to participate in the ongoing U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise, Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday.
An unnamed South Korean military official was quoted as saying two B-1B supersonic strategic bombers flew over the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday afternoon and returned back in the same day to the U.S. Anderson air base in Guam.
Dubbed the "swan of death" for its formidable firepower, the B-1B Lancer is capable of reaching the peninsula in two hours from Guam.
It is faster than B-52 and B-2 bombers, two other strategic bombers of the U.S. forces, delivering heavier payload than the two.
The Wednesday sortie was apparently made in a show of force against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). After the DPRK's fifth nuclear test in September last year, two B-1B bombers were sent to the peninsula.
The dispatch came amid the ongoing U.S.-South Korea spring war games, codenamed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle that are scheduled to last by the end of next month.
The DPRK has denounced the drills as a dress rehearsal for northward invasion.
Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier, also made a visit to Busan, South Korea's southern port city, to attend the ongoing military exercises.
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier and its attendant fleet are accompanied by 24 F/A-18 fighter jets, 10 aerial tankers, 10 S-3A anti-submarine airplanes, 6 SH-3H anti-submarine helicopters, 4 EA-6B electronic warfare aircrafts and 4 E-2 airborne early warning aircrafts.
The U.S. forces are reportedly set to mobilize other strategic assets during the joint drills, including F-35B stealth fighter jets that were deployed in the U.S. military base in Japan in January.
