A group of four US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft, support equipment, and personnel arrived in England on Thursday for a bomber task force mission.
The bombers from the 5th Bomb Wing, Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, arrived at RAF Fairford, England, for what the service described as a regularly scheduled US European Command and US Strategic Command joint mission series.
A C5 Galaxy carrying personnel and supplies arrived in the UK earlier in the day.
En route to RAF Fairford, US bomber aircraft integrated with British Typhoon aircraft and Portuguese F-16s currently assigned to NATO’s Icelandic Air Policing mission.
The bombers, dubbed HATE11, HATE12, HATE13 and HATE14, also integrated with British Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC) to conduct bilateral close air support training. The mission focused on enhancing readiness and interoperability for the controllers responsible for coordinating airstrikes to support ground forces.
The air force noted that bomber rotations through Europe since 2018 have been maintaining its readiness to execute a wide variety of missions across two continents.
“With an ever-changing global security environment, it’s critical that our efforts with our allies and partners are unified,” said Gen Jeff Harrigian, USAFE-AFAFRICA commander. “We’re in Europe training and collaborating together, because consistent integration is how we strengthen our collective airpower.”
