Four U.S. B-1 bombers landed in Guam on Jan. 15 for a Bomber Task Force deployment, the first of the new year.
Two of the bombers also conducted a trilateral flight alongside Japanese and South Korean fighters on their way to Andersen Air Force Base.
Photos posted by the 28th Bomb Wing show four B-1s assigned to the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., arriving on the western Pacific island. Bomber Task Forces involve small batches of B-1s, B-2s, or B-52s deploying overseas, often visiting far-flung countries to reassure allies and partners and discourage adversaries such as Russia and China.
This latest deployment started just a few days before the U.S. presidential inauguration, a key moment of transition.
That same day, B-1s flew with two Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-2s and two Republic of Korea Air Force F-15Ks somewhere in the airspace between Japan and South Korea. The U.S. had previously flown bilateral bomber-fighter flights with either Japan or South Korea, but the trilateral flight reflects growing ties between the three countries in response to tensions with China and North Korea.
“This first trilateral flight of 2025 builds upon a history of strong trilateral cooperation, enabling an immediate coordinated response to regional security challenges,” Pacific Air Forces said in a release at the time.
The first Bomber Task Force of 2025 comes after a series of milestones in 2024—for the first time, U.S. bombers operated out of Romania, flew over and dropped simulated weapons on Finland in a training mission, and conducted a multi-day deployment to Sweden.
“On any given day, we’re actively engaged through Bomber Task Force missions,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, 8th Air Force and Joint-Global Strike Operations Center commander, said in a Jan. 21 press release.
“In fact, about 60 percent of the year we are deployed to a theater or providing continental U.S. (CONUS)-to-CONUS flights in support of theaters or in support of U.S. Strategic Command and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” he said.
Besides solidifying foreign partnerships, the deployments also test the crew’s endurance over 30-plus hour flights, Lt. Col. Vanessa Wilcox, commander of the 96th Bomb Squadron, said in an April press release after her B-52 detachment returned from Diego Garcia, a remote island in the Indian Ocean.
“Flying for over 24 hours, pushing into the 30-hour range, is a challenge,” she said. “It builds on our readiness, training to the capabilities we need to reach different parts of the globe, specifically across the Pacific.”