South Korea and the United States will begin their annual summertime combined exercise on Tuesday in a scaled-back manner.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement on Sunday that the computer-simulated Combined Command Post Training (CCPT) will begin Tuesday and run until August 28 in consideration of the COVID-19 situation and other conditions.

The allies initially planned to start the training Sunday but pushed back the date after a South Korean Army officer, who was supposed to take part in the exercise, tested positive for the coronavirus Friday.

The planned exercise will be smaller in scale compared with previous ones and will be held only daylight hours, as American troops necessary for the program were reportedly unable to come to South Korea under coronavirus-related restrictions.

The JCS said that the exercises will mainly focus on the maintenance of the combined defense posture, and the allies will partly carry out drills to prepare for Seoul to take back wartime operational control of its forces from the United States.

But, earnest testing of Full Operational Capability is expected to take place next year due to the coronavirus outbreak.