According to an update posted on the Pacific Air Forces website, a B-1B Lancer strategic bomber part of the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron was one of two B-1s conducting a training mission in the South China Sea in support of Pacific Air Forces' training efforts and "strategic deterrence missions to reinforce the rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region."

The training missions follows what Stars and Stripes described on April 30 as a "show of force" by the U.S. military in the South China Sea "with a sortie over the contested waters on Thursday by two Air Force bombers."

The B-1B Lancers from the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., flew a 32-hour round trip to conduct operations over the sea as part of a joint bomber task force by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Strategic Command, the Air Force said in news release Thursday.

The mission further demonstrated the service's new "dynamic force employment model," which is intended to make its global bomber presence less predictable, the Air Force said.