About 110 aircraft and more than 1,400 troops were mobilised for this year's Korea Flying Training (KFT), which got underway earlier in the day for a 12-day run at Gwangju Air Base in Gwangju, 267 km south of Seoul, according to the armed service.
More than 60 South Korean warplanes, including F-35A, F-15K and KF-16 fighters, will join the drills, while the US will deploy some 40 aircraft, such as its Air Force's F-16 fighters, A-10 attack aircraft and the Marine Corps' F-35B and FA-18 jets, reports Yonhap News Agency.
The exercise will focus on enhancing the inter-operability and combined operational capability of the allies' advanced fighters by conducting various drills, such as a strike package flight and close air support operations, according to the South's Air Force.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]KFT is one of the two regular large-scale exercises the allies hold every year.
KFT is held in the first half of the year, while the other -- named Vigilant Storm last year -- in the latter half.
The exercise comes as tensions run high on the Korean Peninsula, following Pyongyang's test-firing of what it claimed to be a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile on April 13 and a North Korean patrol boat's crossing of the western de facto maritime border on April 15.
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