The U.S. Air Force has deployed two B-2 stealth bomber planes to Europe, the Pentagon announced Monday.
Assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, the planes capable of delivering nuclear weapons on Sunday joined three B-52 Stratofortress aircraft already deployed to RAF Fairford, a British air base west of London. It’s unclear as to how long the aircraft will be deployed.
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“This deployment of strategic bombers provides an invaluable opportunity to strengthen and improve interoperability with our allies and partners,” Adm. Cecil Haney, commander, U.S. Strategic Command said in a news release. “The training and integration of strategic forces demonstrates to our nation’s leaders and our allies that we have the right mix of aircraft and expertise to respond to a variety of potential threats and situations.”
All five aircraft are reported to be conducting training missions in the U.S. European Command area.
“It certainly is yet another demonstration of America’s ironclad commitment to the NATO alliance,” Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said,
according to AFP. “These multi-role heavy bombers will conduct training flights in the US Eucom area of operation, providing opportunities for the air crews to sharpen their skills and increase interoperability.”
While not directly mentioning the tensions in Ukraine, the USAF release stated the Strategic Command routinely conducts training missions in support of geographic combatant commands to “ensure the U.S. has a credible and flexible capability to provide the president a variety of options he may need to protect the nation or its allies and partners.”
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