Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 Strike Eagles break away from a formation with a U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer over the Red Sea as part of a presence patrol above U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility Oct. 30, 2021. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jerreht Harris.
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
A B-1 bomber flew with aircraft from four U.S. partner nations Oct. 30 as it circled the Arabian Peninsula during a bomber task force mission.
F-15s from Saudi Arabia and Israel and F-16s from Bahrain and Egypt escorted the bomber during a five-hour mission that “originated in the Indian Ocean, flew over the Gulf of Aden, Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Red Sea, Suez Canal, Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman,” according to a press release from U.S. Central Command. At least one American KC-10 also participated in the exercise.
“We are stronger together,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., head of CENTCOM, said in a statement. “Military readiness for any contingency or mission—from crisis response to multilateral exercises to one-day presence patrols like this—depend on reliable partnerships.”
The Saudi Arabian and Israeli air forces also took to social media to feature images and videos from the mission.
Earlier today (Saturday), Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jets escorted an American B-1B bomber over Israeli skies towards the surrounding bay.
The joint flight illustrates the continued strategic cooperation of the Israel Defense Forces with the United States in the area. pic.twitter.com/G6cPqRt8zK
While Central Command’s press release did not specify where the B-1 flew from in the Indian Ocean, B-1Bs and Airmen from the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., recently deployed to Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for the first time in 15 years as part of a bomber task force mission. Diego Garcia is located more than 2,000 miles from the Arabian Peninsula.
This marks the fifth “presence patrol” mission U.S. bombers have undertaken in the Central Command area of responsibility this year. It is the first since March and the first to involve a B-1. In January, B-52s flew over the Middle East on three occasions, followed by another mission in March.
The Air Force introduced bomber task forces in 2020 as an alternative to continuous bomber presences outside the continental U.S. In addition to the B-1Bs at Diego Garcia, B-1s from 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron of Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, deployed to RAF Fairford, England, in October as part of a bomber task force for U.S. Air Forces in Europe.
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
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.
The Air Force is planning to award Northrop Grumman a contract that could allow the RQ-4 Global Hawk to keep flying into 2033. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center posted a presolicitation notice Aug. 17 saying it plans to award Northrop a sole-source contract for development, modernization, retrofit, and…
2nd Lt. Leah A. Borsich, an Air Force civil engineer, was among the eight people killed when a contractor plane crashed near a remote Alaskan radar site last week, officials announced Aug. 24.
A new Navy missile could fill a long-range air-to-air need for the U.S. Air Force’s fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation fighters. The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for munitions posted information on the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile online on Aug. 22, the same day it unveiled the project at the service’s…
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems predicts the new drone it plans to pitch for the military’s “Massed Modular Aircraft” program will exceed many of the military’s requirements for a successor to the MQ-9 Reaper.
Vital infrastructure at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., and Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, is suffering due to years of deferred maintenance and climate-related stressors, government auditors said in a new report—two prominent examples of larger issues affecting bases worldwide.
A small civilian plane carrying eight people and contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crashed Aug. 20 near a remote Alaskan radar site managed by the Air Force in support of NORAD, killing all aboard.
Some 50 miles from the border with North Korea, U.S. and South Korean forces recently executed their first counter-drone defense drills targeting medium-sized systems, which the North Korean military has has prioritized based on Russia and Iranian models.
A frayed wire likely triggered stray voltage to shut off a fuel valve, causing the catastrophic loss of an MQ-9 Reaper drone last August, according to a new Air Force investigation report.
✓
Thank You!
Check your inbox to verify your email address and finish setting up your AFA account.
★
Welcome Back!
An account with this email already exists. Please log in to continue.
Subscribe to the Air & Space Forces Daily Report
The latest news from Air & Space Forces Magazine, as well as news from other leading publications, delivered right to your inbox every morning!
We’re sorry, there has been an error. Please review your input or try again later.
