Story highlights First-ever for nighttime drills for B-1 bombers in combination with South Korean, Japanese warplanes

Exercise sends message to North Korea, South Korean military says

(CNN) US Air Force B-1 bombers carried out mock missile launches off both coasts of South Korea Tuesday night in the latest show of force against North Korea, South Korean military officials said.

Two bombers operating out of Andersen Air Force Base in Guam carried out the drills, US Pacific Air Forces said in a statement. It said the US warplanes flew with fighter jets from the South Korean air force and Japan Self-Defense Force in the first nighttime B-1 bomber exercise between the three allies.

The warplanes first conducted a simulated air-to-ground missile drill over the waters east of the Korean Peninsula and then flew over South Korea and conducted the same drill over the waters west of the peninsula, the South Korean military said.

The exercise showed the "strong ability of the alliance against the North Korean nuclear missile threat," the South Korean air force said.

A US Air Force B-1B bomber is refueled midflight during a nighttime mission off the Korean Peninsula on October 10.

The US military statement said the exercise "demonstrates how U.S. military forces in the Indo-Asia-Pacific are always ready to defend the American homeland and how the U.S. stands resolutely with Japan and the ROK to honor their unshakeable alliance commitments."