U.S. Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighters for the first time joined U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers and foreign F-15 fighters in a show of force over Korea. Four F-35B Joint Strike Fighters, the fifth-generation fighter made by Lockheed Martin Corp., flew alongside a pair of B-1B Lancers, the non-nuclear strategic bomber, two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-15Js and four Republic of Korea Air Force F-15Ks, fourth-generation fighters made by Boeing Co. The B-1s flew from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, by way of Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, while the four U.S. Marine F-35Bs came from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, according to the command. The 10-hour mission — a direct response to North Korea’s Aug. 28 launch of an intermediate range ballistic missile over northern Japan — included flights of the American and Japanese aircraft near Kyushu, Japan, and a practice bombing run of the U.S. and Korean aircraft at the Pilsung Range training area in the eastern part of South Korea. It came after both Japan and the U.S. conducted tests of missile defense systems designed to counter North Korean threats.
