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.
The credibility of America’s deterrent is waning, and the way to get it back is by restructuring defense leadership and raising the defense budget almost 100 percent, according to a new paper from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.