Those U.S. Stealth Jets Haven’t Actually Flown Near North Korea Yet
As North Korea ratchets up its apocalyptic rhetoric, the U.S. military has sent advanced warplanes to a big training exercise with South Korea, including its premier stealth fighter, the F-22 Raptor. Only the Pentagon clarified today that the jets haven’t actually flown yet.
Two F-22 Raptors are on “static display” at the Osan air base south of Seoul, Pentagon spokesman George Little said. Outside of the flight on Sunday from Japan’s Kadena air base, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the jets have yet to take part in the U.S.-South Korea exercise Foal Eagle, which will continue until the end of April.
The Raptors were previously scheduled to join the exercise, Little said, but their presence on the Korean Peninsula comes as North Korea has acted increasingly erratically since its latest nuclear detonation. An official statement over the weekend threatened a “do-or-die battle” with the United States, following the release of a photograph seeming to show Pyongyang’s leadership targeting the continental U.S. with long-range ballistic missiles it does not possess.
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