Four B-52s deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on April 17 in the latest Pacific bomber task force mission.
The B-52s, from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., will train with joint services and allied nations during the deployment, according to a Pacific Air Forces release.
“The Air Force is currently working in a complex, dynamic, and sometimes volatile global security environment,” 2nd Bomb Wing Commander Col. Mark Dmytryszyn said in the release. “It is our charge to regularly conduct these joint and combined security cooperation engagements across different geographic combatant commands and their areas of operation.”
The deployment comes on the one-year anniversary of the Air Force ending the Continuous Bomber Presence at Guam. For 16 straight years, the Air Force kept bombers based at Andersen as a deterrent. Since then, the Air Force has sent smaller “bomber task force” rotations, which include a few bombers at a time, on a more unpredictable basis.
B-52s and B-1s have rotated through the base as part of BTFs.
“These BTF missions demonstrate the strategic credibility and tactical flexibility of our forces to address today’s matters,” Dmytryszyn said in the release. “As an aircraft capable of employing with a wide variety of nuclear and conventional weapons, delivered across a continent-spanning range, employing global joint all-domain command and control systems, the B-52 remains a universally-recognized symbol of America’s assurances to our allies, our partners, and the world.”