U.S. conducts missile defense test, flies bombers over Korea

U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber (L) fly with South Korean fighter jet F-15K fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula
(Image credit: Handout/Getty Images)

The United States military conducted a test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system early Sunday morning, successfully intercepting a ballistic missile launched over the Pacific Ocean using the THAAD system in Alaska.

The test will help the U.S. "stay ahead of the evolving threat," said Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves. It comes two days after North Korea tested its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), demonstrating a weapon U.S. analysts say could reach parts of the American mainland.

Also on Sunday, the U.S. flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean Peninsula accompanied by South Korean and Japanese fighter jets. "North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," said Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy. "If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.