PHOTOS: B-2 Bombers Fly with Australians, Land on Diego Garcia

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

The three B-2 Spirits that touched down in Australia last week for a Bomber Task Force have been making waves across the Indo-Pacific, with show-stopping formation flight and a rare landing at a strategic location.

Two of the B-2s conducted a flight escorted by American F-22s, two Royal Australian Air Force F-35As, two EA-18G Growlers, and one E-7A Wedgetail throughout the airspace of southeastern Australia on Aug 19—an impressive display of airpower between the two allies featuring some of their most advanced fighter, bomber, electronic warfare, and airborne early warning and control aircraft.

Australian KC-30A tankers later joined the flight to refuel the bombers and the Growlers mid-air.

Later in the week, one of the B-2s made a quick pit stop at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, located some 3,000 miles from the mainland. Airmen from the 110th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron changed crews while the ground team quickly refueled the bomber and got it airborne again, all with the engines running—a process known as “hot pitting.”

The team has streamlined this process to ensure more efficiency with fewer personnel.

“In the past, our hot pit crews have been a large group, with a big footprint, going out and setting up,” Col. Matthew Howard, 110th EBS deputy commander and B-2 pilot, said in a release. “With more iterations of this process, we’ve been making it leaner under the Agile Combat Employment concept, where we can land a jet with the minimum number of people, turn the jet, and then get it airborne.”

These bomber missions are designed to enhance readiness “to respond to any potential crisis or challenge in the Indo-Pacific” through joint operations, the release added.

“If we lose a tanker or don’t get a tanker for aerial refueling, a hot pit enables us to move our jet from location to location, refuel and complete the mission,” added Howard.

Diego Garcia hosts a Naval Support Facility and provides access to the Indo-Pacific, Southwest Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. It regularly sees USAF bombers fly in, such as in March when two B-52 Stratofortresses landed there. It has been four years, however, since the Air Force has announced a B-2 landing on the island.

The B-2s are currently deployed to RAAF base Amberley, along with two KC-135R tankers from the Illinois National Guard.

Earlier this month, the Air Force also deployed F-22s from the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron to Australia. The Raptors, along with the RAAF’s F-35s, conducted a joint hot pit refuel mission at the nation’s western base, Curtin. The strategically located base is still undergoing development, as it prepares to host more temporary operations.

“We’re willing to take risks if it means better agility and combat capability,” Master Sgt. Luke Ashman, 27th Expeditionary Fighter Generation Squadron aircraft section chief, said in a release. “The execution of this went very smoothly, the RAAF seems to operate on the same wavelength as us.”

These bomber and fighter operations with Australian forces follow the U.S.-Australian ministerial conference earlier this month, where the two countries’ defense chiefs said they would increase the presence of U.S. aircraft in Australia.

“We’re increasing the presence of rotational U.S. forces in Australia” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin said at the time, to include “more maritime patrol aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft operating from bases across northern Australia.” He added that the allies are planning on “more frequent rotational bomber deployments.”

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org