B-2s, B-52s Train Over Hawaii

A pair of B-52s from Barksdale AFB, La., and a brace of B-2s from Whiteman AFB, Mo., flew non-stop from their respective home stations on long-range, power-projection training sorties to Hawaii, announced US Strategic Command. The bombers conducted a variety of activities during the 20-hour-plus flights on April 2, including dropping inert ordnance on Hawaii’s Pohakuloa military weapons range and making low-level approaches over Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, before heading back home, states STRATCOM’s release. “These long-duration, coordinated training missions allow our strategic bomber aircrews to execute synchronized global strike missions,” said Maj. Gen. Scott Vander Hamm, 8th Air Force commander, who oversees the Air Force’s nuclear-capable bomber fleet. They are “vital to assuring our nation’s leaders and our allies that we have the right mix of aircraft and skill to strike at the time and place of our choosing,” he said. The flights took place during the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ defense ministers in Honolulu that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hosted.