B-52 Drops Bombs in Lithuania in Rare Live-Fire Exercise

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A B-52 Stratofortress bomber dropped weapons on a range in Lithuania on Nov. 15 in an unusual live fire display, a U.S. defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine. 

The B-52, which is assigned to the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, was participating in a NATO exercise dubbed Vanguard Merlin.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe said in a news release that the B-52 “performed air-to-ground range training”  with an Italian Eurofighter Typhoon on Nov. 14-15  Lithuanian, Czech, Swedish, and Norwegian joint terminal attack controllers also participated in the exercise.

“This mission allowed aircrew to familiarize themselves with the operations in Lithuania and the coalition forces on the ground, creating a combat-ready force that has depth in capability and breadth in capacity,” U.S. Air Forces in Europe said in a release.

The munitions were dropped at Cudgel Range in Lithuania, a Baltic nation that was formerly part of the Soviet Union but which has been a NATO member since 2004.

The bombs for the B-52 were assembled and loaded by Airmen from the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron and 420th Munitions Squadron at RAF Fairford, U.K. Photos and video released by the Air Force indicate they included GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs).

The 420th Munitions Squadron maintains war reserve materiel at RAF Welford, which is the U.S. military’s second-largest munitions storage area in Europe and is located roughly 30 miles away from RAF Fairford.

Ten B-52s are currently deployed to Europe and the Middle East, nearly 15 percent of the USAF’s entire B-52 fleet.

Four of those B-52s are forward deployed at RAF Fairford as part of a bomber task force mission and are normally based at Barksdale Air Force Base, La. Some flew with Danish F-16s, German Eurofighter Typhoons, and Italian Typhoons on a mission over the Baltic Sea on Nov. 15. It is unclear if that was the same flight as the mission that flew over Lithuania in the NATO exercises. 

The remaining six B-52s, which are from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., are at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. On Nov. 13, two B-52s flew over the Bahrain International Air Show, with a third displayed on the flight line, the first time B-52s have participated in that event.

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