B-52 bombers fly over the Middle East on Jan. 27, 2021. (Photo by Roslyn WARD/ US AIR FORCE/ AFP)
“This is truly a global air strike capability …… is the ability to deploy air power to any place, at any Time, that can strike targets anywhere.” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown said.
In February, the U.S. Air Force deployed B-1B bombers to Norway, marking the first rapid deployment of U.S. bombers to the country.
“Will it come to Norway again? Very likely. When will it happen? It could happen at any time.” Brown said, “It’s a race, and if I tell you exactly when it’s going to happen, I’m not going to do a rapid deployment because you’ll report it in advance.”
The U.S. has been conducting short-term overseas deployment exercises for bombers, as well as round-trip flight maneuvers from the U.S., as part of the dynamic deployment of air power, a strategic goal of the U.S. military that requires the U.S. Air Force to operate “strategically predictable, but operationally unpredictable. Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Middents told Business Insider last October.
Lt. Col. Middents led six B-52 bombers on a five-week Bomber Task Force (BTF) mission to the United Kingdom last August. Designed to demonstrate that mobility and flexibility, the bomber task force flew bombers throughout the region during the five-week mission.
Last spring, the Bomber Task Force sent the first Gunfighter B-1B bombers over Sweden. Since mid-November, the U.S. bomber contingent has made five trips from the U.S. mainland to the Middle East, and U.S. officials say the bombers are operating as a deterrent to Iran.
“Gunfighter” B-1B bombers. (Photo credit should read JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images)
The bomber contingent is also more active in the Indo-Pacific, where the Air Force announced in early 2020 that it was ending its ongoing short-term deployment of bombers to Guam, a program that required U.S. mainland bombers to fly to Guam, stay for a few months and then return, which ran for 16 years.
Pacific Air Forces chief Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach told reporters last November that the bomber contingent program has been “really, really successful.
The B-1B bomber task force was deployed to Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, last May. Since then, the bomber wing has flown from Guam, Diego Garcia and Alaska, or from U.S. bases, to conduct joint warfare exercises with allies in the region.
Brig. Gen. Jeremy Sloane, commander of the 36th Wing at Anderson Air Force Base, said at an event in January that the bomber task force was created “to accomplish the bomber’s ability to create tactical pressure and deterrence in a wider range of locations and to complicate the enemy’s response through the continuous deployment of fewer aircraft “.
“So far, the bomber task force has been deployed fairly frequently, so we really haven’t found any significant problems after we made this tactical change.” Sloan added.
Brown said in February that the Air Force is trying to confuse adversaries with these operations.
“I want to make sure the pieces are moving regularly, that they’re not pawns that are fixed on the board.” Brown said, “In the future, you’re going to see more bombers flying around the world, and that’s exactly the plan we’re implementing.”
The Indo-Pacific region will be a focus for the U.S. military in the coming years.
In February, a B-1B Gunfighter bomber became the first U.S. bomber to land in India since World War II.
Brown added that the Air Force needs to be “thoughtful” about the message it is sending. He has said the Air Force needs to do more to “develop a deep understanding and identification of the Chinese Communist Party and Russia.
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