US to send F-22 stealth fighters to South Korea

Seoul, Feb 16: The US will dispatch nuclear-capable F-22 stealth fighters to South Korea in an apparent show of force to militarily pressurise North Korea, the media reported on Tuesday.

Four F-22 fighters, one of US' strategic assets, will make a sortie on Wednesday to the Korean peninsula, Xinhua news agency reported.

The F-22 fighter has a stealth function of escaping any radar detection, and is capable of carrying nuclear missiles and bombs.

Its operational range reaches as far as 2,177 km. The F-22 fighters deployed at a US air base in Okinawa, Japan can fly to the Korean peninsula in about two hours.

The F-22 sortie would come in the wake of North Korea's long-range rocket launch on February 7, which outsiders see as a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

IANS