A lone B-52 bomber will participate in a short-term joint training exercise with the Royal Australian Air Force at RAAF Darwin, Australia, this week. “These rotations enhance U.S. ability to train, exercise, and operate with Australia and with other allies and partners across the region,” PACAF stated in a Jan. 23 release. The B-52 is temporarily staged from Andersen AFB, Guam, as part of US Pacific Command’s rotating strategic bomber presence in the Asia-Pacific region, officials said. B-52s from the 20th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale AFB, La., arrived on rotation to the Pacific late last summer. Buff last flew a joint training mission with the Australians from RAAF Darwin in 2012, making simulated weapon drops over the Delamere Training Range there.
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.