Back to Guam

A brace of B-2 stealth bombers is back on Guam after a long absence, and that’s exactly why they’re there, Air Force Global Strike Command chief Lt. Gen. James Kowalski told defense reporters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. “It’s been a long break” since two B-2 accidents on Guam—which resulted in one airplane destroyed in 2008 and one heavily damaged in 2010—and Kowalski said it’s time to get B-2 pilots back up to speed on operating in the Pacific. “We wanted to get healthy again” after the accidents, and allow time for the B-2 Radar Modernization Program to refit on most of the aircraft before resuming the Guam deployments, he said during the Feb. 6 roundtable. The crews and aircraft will rotate in and out for training periods lasting up to several weeks.