https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/ai ... s-1.628167
May 1, 2020
Four B-1B bombers and about 200 airmen from Texas arrived in Guam on Friday
to conduct training and operations with allies and partners, the Air Force said.
The Lancers and airmen flew in from the 9th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing,
at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, the service said in a statement Friday.
They were deployed to support Pacific Air Forces in training allies and partners
and to reinforce the “rules-based international order”
in the Indo-Pacific region through strategic deterrence missions, the statement said.
The Air Force did not disclose the length of the deployment.
Three of the bombers flew directly to Andersen Air Force Base on Guam,
while the fourth flew east of Japan
to train with the U.S. Navy before joining the others, the statement said.
https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/ai ... s-1.628167
Two weeks ago,
the Air Force abruptly ended its longtime practice of rotating bombers through Andersen for six-month intervals,
opting instead for a less predictable means of deploying the aircraft throughout the globe.
The Air Force had used those Guam-based bomber missions to patrol over the East and South China Seas
as a means of projecting U.S. airpower and resolve to North Korea, China and Russia.
B-1s were last deployed to the Indo-Pacific region in 2017, the Air Force said.
https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/ai ... s-1.628167
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