A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft flew from RAF Fairford, England, to Romania on April 2 to conduct Close Air Support training at the Cincu Range with Romanian Joint Terminal Attack Controllers. On the way back to Fairford, the bomber was joined in formation by Hungarian Gripen fighter jets.
The U.S. has a strong military-to-military relationship with our NATO allies Romania and Hungary. Joint training opportunities like these enhance our ability to operate together and sharpen the readiness of the NATO alliance.
A second B-52 flew to Morocco to participate in the annual African Lion training exercise. African Lion is hosted by Morocco and Tunisia and led by U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa. The purpose of the exercise is to enhance interoperability and mutual understanding of each nations’ tactics, techniques and procedures.
The B-52 missions also allowed aircrews to conduct theater familiarization and to demonstrate U.S. commitment to allies and partners through the global employment of our military forces. U.S. Strategic Command regularly tests and evaluates the readiness of strategic assets to ensure we are able to honor our security commitments.
The B-52s, part of the Bomber Task Force currently deployed to the U.S. European Command area of responsibility, are from the 2nd Bomb Wing, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The aircraft arrived in theater on March 14-15 and are temporarily operating out of RAF Fairford.