The Air Force will fly all three of its bomber types—a B-1B, B-2A, and B-52H—over Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 7, the service announced. The mission marks the first time the three bomber types have flown formation over such an event, and ...
Air Force logisticians believe the B-1 bomber, despite having outlived its service life, can last until its replacement, the B-21, comes along. But its age means frequent, and significant, repairs for its remaining years.
A B-1B bomber on Dec. 4 released a JASSM stealth missile from its Sniper targeting pod pylon. The demonstration follows a captive-carry dress rehearsal in November, and paves the way for the B-1 to carry a variety of munitions, but especially hypersonic missiles, on external ...
House-Senate Conferees require a larger Air Force in the final version of the fiscal 2021 defense bill, directing the service to build the 386 combat squadrons it said it needs to meet the National Defense Strategy, and specifically raising the bomber fleet to 225 aircraft, ...
The Air Force sent two bomber task force missions to the Pacific and Europe on Dec. 3, with a B-52 linking up with Greek and Norwegian fighters after another was forced to divert, and B-1s headed back to Guam. Two B-52s took off from Minot ...
China and Russia have noticed an increase in USAF bomber missions in the Indo-Pacific, and they are starting to respond in their own ways, the top USAF officer in the region said. The Air Force in April stopped permanently basing bombers at Andersen Air Force ...
The structural fatigue test of the B-1B bomber, which began in 2012 and was initially expected to take five years, will wrap up in 2021, an Air Force Materiel Command spokesman told Air Force Magazine. The test will stress the B-1 to 28,000 hours on ...
About 200 Airmen and four B-1s from Dyess Air Force Base's 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron began a Bomber Task Force deployment to Guam this week to back up multilateral training being hosted by Pacific Air Forces, according to a PACAF release. The Texas-based troops and ...
Russian aircraft intercepted two B-1 bombers over the Bering Sea on Oct. 20, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Twitter. The USAF aircraft never entered Russia's sovereign airspace, and the Russian planes followed “international airspace rules,” the ministry added. Pacific Air Forces on Oct. 21 ...
The Air Force this month finished the biggest upgrade to the B-1B Lancer fleet ever. The Integrated Battle Station program, which includes three separate avionics and cockpit upgrades, began in 2012. Since then, 62 aircraft have received the upgrade, almost all on a dedicated line ...
Air Force B-1s and B-2s deployed to the Indo-Pacific came together to train with U.S. and Australian joint terminal attack controllers down under, dropping training bombs at three different training ranges throughout August. The B-1s, deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and B-2s deployed ...
Two of the Air Force’s three bombers recently flew simultaneous long-range missions across the Indo-Pacific, with two different sets of B-1s training alongside Japanese fighters and Navy ships, while stealth B-2s flew their own training mission in the Indian Ocean. Two bomber task forces are ...