Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1407425
Bomber Task Force In recent years the B-1Bs (and the remaining two US bomber types) have been present in the European sky quite often - this has become a new normal. 2-3 times a year the aircraft are deployed to RAF Fairford (that served as a forward operating base for the B-52s during the Cold War). Fairford is used as a location from where Bomber Task Force sorties originate. The Bomber Task Force missions demonstrate the capabilities and the allied involvement. The European militaries also get a unique opportunity to work together with strategic bombers. A similar situation occurred in 2020 when B-1Bs were operating out of Fairford, flying in the airspaces of the NATO member states (but the flights were not limited to that airspace, as the Lancers also flew over Ukraine for the first time back then). The sorties usually looked similar - missions involved operations with JTACs, within a distant training range in the Baltics, or Poland, a simulated/actual bomb drop/simulated engagements against warships with the use of LRASM (two-ship formation of B-1Bs did a sortie as such in May 2020, over the Black Sea). These missions were preceded by fighter intercepts, involving fighters stationed in the countries along the route. Bomber Task AVIATION