The american operation mirrors russia's
own simulated aerial raids. in recent
years russian bombers have stepped up
their probes of nato and allied airspace. Occasionally following flight profiles
matching atomic bombing runs. Six B-52s arrived at the royal air force
base at fairford starting march 14/2019.
"The deployment of strategic bombers to
the uk helps exercise raph fairford as
united states air forces in europe's
forward operating location for bombers," the air force stated.
The deployment also includes joint and
allied training in the u.s european
command theater to improve bomber
interoperability. Training with joint partners, allied
nations and other u.s air force units
contributes to our ready and postured
forces and enables us to build enduring
and strategic relationships necessary to
confront a broad range of global
challenges.
At least two of the B-52s that deployed
to the united kingdom are
nuclear-capable models. Identifiable by a
special fin that the air force added in
order to comply with the new start
treaty that limits the number of u.s and
russian nuclear delivery systems. But it was one of the
non-nuclear-capable B-52s, serial number 60024 that initially flew
a mock cruise missile attack on Russia's Kaliningrad Exclave, according to Stephen Watkins an independent imagery analyst.
Observers can track military flights via
their transponders and radio traffic. The
deployment is clearly meant to be a
signal of the us military's strategic
capabilities to america's great power
competitors, primarily russia, Joseph Trevi Thicke wrote at the War Zone.
Though the air force has regularly sent
small detachments of B-52s to the united
kingdom for training exercises
throughout europe over the years. Having
six of the bombers there at once is the
single largest deployment of the B-52s. To the region since the invasion of iraq
in 2003, Trevi Thicke continued citing
Military.com.
During the opening phases of that
conflict, 20 B-52s flew strike missions
from the united kingdom. Compare the recent american bomber
flights to russia's own, similar flights. 11 russian su-24 bombers in early 2018
flew a mock attack on a norwegian radar
site, said Lieutenant General Morton Haga Lundy, the director of norway's
intelligence service.
17 russian warplanes in may 2018 buzzed
the royal navy destroyer HMS Duncan in
the black sea
and a year earlier in march 2017 nine
russian warplanes conducted another raid
targeting a norwegian military site. Three months later in may 2017, 12
russian planes simulated attack runs on
nato vessels exercising in norwegian
waters. NATO and allied warplanes routinely
intercept russian planes conducting mock
raids, but russian fighters did not
interfere with the u.s air force's march
14th mock raid.
They however did intercept and monitor B-52
60024 and presumably other B-52s when
they repeated the mock raid on march
20th. Russia's swiftly retaliated, two Russian Air Force II 160
nuclear-capable bombers flew over the
north sea, heading toward the united
kingdom. Raf Fighters Rose to intercept the
dueling mock raids alarmed Hans Christensen, a nuclear expert with the
federation of american scientists.
"If you missed signs of new cold war this
should wake you up," Christensen tweeted.
Subscribe Daily Post or Follow Google News to update information quickly or visit this Link: https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKML-1rAswzMDEAw
