South Korea and the U.S. will begin their regular combined air force drills starting next week, providing the allies with an opportunity to demonstrate their combined defense posture against North Korea’s evolving threats in the wake of recent provocations.

A military official said on Tuesday the two-week long exercise will start May 9.

The size of the exercise will be on a similar scale as past training drills.

The exercise, dubbed “Korea Flying Training,” is a scaled-down version of the “Max Thunder” exercise conducted previously for which the two countries mobilized their air assets and service members on a larger scale.

The allies' Navies were also slated to start their four-day anti-submarine exercise in the East Sea from Tuesday.