A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress, assigned to the 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, Minot Air Force Base, N.D., lands on the flight line in support of a Bomber Task Force mission at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, July 7, 2025. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Alyssa Bankston
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
The Air Force kicked off a bomber task force deployment to Guam coinciding with a large-scale USAF exercise in the region that is intended to reinforce deterrence against China.
B-52H Stratofortress bombers deployed to Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, from their home at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the nation’s bomber force, announced July 9.
The bombers are operating as the 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron while deployed and are assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing. The deployment is occurring during the Resolute Forces Pacific, or REFORPAC, exercise, which is scheduled to involve approximately 300 aircraft.
“This deployment is in support of Pacific Air Forces’ training efforts with Allies, partners, and joint forces and strategic deterrence missions to reinforce the rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region,” AFGSC said in a news release.
The command stated there were “multiple” B-52s deployed, but did not indicate how many bombers were part of the BTF. At least two B-52s flew to Guam, according to open-source flight tracking data.
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Bethany Jones, 23rd Expeditionary Bomber Generation Squadron assistant dedicated crew chief, performs post-flight maintenance on a USAF B-52H Stratofortress after a Bomber Task Force mission at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, July 7, 2025. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Vincent Padilla
For 16 years, the Air Force maintained a continuous bomber presence on Guam. That ended in 2020 when the service opted to rely on bomber task forces deploying from the U.S. instead to various locations around the world. But Guam remains a regular spot for U.S. bombers.
The Pentagon has not previewed the specific missions the B-52s are scheduled to conduct during their BTF deployment, which have generally been billed as unpredictable and flexible training events. However, AFGSC offered heavy hints that the bombers will likely be participating in one of the multiple exercises occurring in the Pacific this summer.
“This deployment includes support for regional Joint events,” the command stated.
The B-52s on Guam are not the only BUFFs deployed to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command region. There are also four B-52s deployed on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, where they have been stationed since May after taking over for B-2 Spirits that conducted airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen until the U.S. reached a ceasefire with the group.
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
One year into a new campaign to boost readiness rates for the B-1B Lancer and B-52H Stratofortress bombers, Air Force Global Strike Command is claiming some early wins and planning to forge ahead with more improvements.
Over the past few months and peaking in August, crews with the 910th Airlift Wing out of Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, have been running nighttime, low-flying missions to kill a ubiquitous and deadly adversary that’s plagued Americans for centuries—mosquitoes.
An Iranian ballistic missile attack on a key U.S. air base in Jordan damaged multiple U.S. warplanes, people familiar with the matter confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine.
General Atomics has unveiled the first renderings of its Wildfire drone, which it plans to pitch for the Air Force’s hunt for a new, low-cost Massed Modular Aircraft.
In the small world of Air Force weather specialists, combat weather specialists are a niche unto themselves, deploying with Army ground units to provide forecasts and, if need be, fight alongside those Soldiers. For Staff Sgt. Francisco Estrada, the hardest part of the job isn’t the possibility of ground combat,…
Startups Anduril Industries and Heremus have agreed to integrate Anduril’s autonomy software onto Hermeus’ hypersonic demonstrator aircraft “Quarterhorse”—uniting two technologies that have drawn keen interest and investment from the Air Force.
In a dramatic flare-up in the hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, American forces struck and destroyed five Iranian oil tankers Sept. 8, U.S. Central Command said. Iran retaliated by lobbing ballistic missiles toward a major U.S. base in Jordan.
After months of delays, the first F-15EX fighter jet the U.S. Air Force will permanently base overseas left Boeing’s facilities in St. Louis on Aug. 28. Eventually, the aircraft will fly to Kadena Air Base in Japan and join the 18th Wing there, but for now it is going to…
