The last contingent of B-2 bomber pilots, maintainers, and support staff who deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam, over the last four months to help bolster Pacific region security are returning to their home base—and taking their bombers with them—at Whiteman AFB, Mo. Whiteman’s 509th Bomb Wing sent aircrews in two waves of two months each to let each of its two bomb squadrons get Pacific training time, while maintainers and other support personnel stayed the full four months. During the Pacific tour, the B-2s flew missions to Alaska and Australia.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.