B-52 Stratofortress aircraft, support equipment, and personnel from the 5th Bomb Wing, Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, arrived at RAF Fariford, England, today to execute the long-planned Bomber Task Force mission, a regularly scheduled U.S. European Command and U.S. Strategic Command joint mission series.
En route to RAF Fairford, U.S. Bomber Aircraft integrated with British Typhoon aircraft and Portuguese F-16s currently assigned to NATO’s Icelandic Air Policing mission. Bomber aircraft also integrated with British Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC) to conduct bilateral Close Air Support training. The mission focused on enhancing readiness and interoperability for the controllers responsible for coordinating airstrikes to support ground forces.
Regularly integrating with our allies improves our cooperation and operational capacity, capability and interoperability. Occurring since 2018, bomber rotations through Europe maintain our readiness to execute a wide variety of missions across two continents, sustaining peace through deterrence.
“With an ever-changing global security environment, it’s critical that our efforts with our allies and partners are unified,” said Gen Jeff Harrigian, USAFE-AFAFRICA commander. “We’re in Europe training and collaborating together, because consistent integration is how we strengthen our collective airpower.”
Through their rotation the bombers will be operating from RAF Fairford to continue to integrate with our partners and allies.
Bomber rotations reinforce the U.S. commitment to NATO allies and coalition partners to maintain our collective safety and sovereignty.
Coverage of the BTF deployment will be continuously available on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service at: https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/bombertaskforceeurope
For media interested in engagement opportunities, please contact USAFE-AFAFRICA Public Affairs at +49 06371-47-6558 or email usafepao.pao@us.af.mil or usafepa.pastaffdutyofficer@us.af.mil.
U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) is responsible for U.S. military operations across Europe, portions of Asia and the Middle East, the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean. USEUCOM is comprised of more than 65,000 permanent military personnel supported by rotational forces and DoD civilians working closely with NATO Allies and Partners. The command is one of two U.S. forward-deployed geographic combatant commands headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. For more information about USEUCOM, visit https://www.eucom.mil.
