{"id":16552,"date":"2020-06-30T20:05:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T20:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/06\/30\/despite-pandemic-air-force-continues-long-range-bomber-task-force-missions-in-europe\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:24:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:24:25","slug":"despite-pandemic-air-force-continues-long-range-bomber-task-force-missions-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2020\/06\/30\/despite-pandemic-air-force-continues-long-range-bomber-task-force-missions-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite pandemic, Air Force continues long-range Bomber Task Force missions in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recent long-range <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2020\/05\/11\/show-of-force-during-coronavirus-all-3-types-of-usaf-bombers-fly-long-range-missions-to-europe\/\" target=_blank>Bomber Task Force missions<\/a> to Europe have sharpened the Air Force\u2019s ability to operate in Europe and will continue, according to Air Force Gen. Jeff Harrigian, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have been able to \u2014 through COVID \u2014 find opportunities to leverage, frankly, a great working relationship with STRATCOM and Global Strike to leverage their capabilities in coordination and synchronization with our partners,\u201d Harrigian said during a June 29 Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe were able to generate these sorties and coordinate them from across Europe to facilitate training opportunities, demonstrate interoperability, and at the end of the day, ensure that as we continue to refine what I\u2019ll call our muscle memory to operate across Europe,\u201d Harrigian said. \u201cThese Bomber Task Forces afforded us a tremendous opportunity to do that and so we took advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The task force missions also demonstrate to potential adversaries that, despite the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing complications, the Air Force has maintained its ability to carry out complicated, simultaneous missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force has conducted a string of long-range Bomber Task Force missions this spring involving all three Air Force bomber aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2020\/05\/11\/show-of-force-during-coronavirus-all-3-types-of-usaf-bombers-fly-long-range-missions-to-europe\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/B-52-flight-STRATCOM-2.JPG.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Show of force during coronavirus: All 3 types of USAF bombers fly long-range missions to Europe<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Air Force sought to show it can deliver firepower around the world, even through mitigation efforts designed to limit the spread of coronavirus.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, two B-2 Spirit bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, two B-52H Stratofortresses from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, and two B-52s from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana conducted a strategic bomber mission together in Europe on May 7, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2020\/05\/11\/show-of-force-during-coronavirus-all-3-types-of-usaf-bombers-fly-long-range-missions-to-europe\/\">according to U.S. Strategic Command<\/a>. The mission, which was designed to highlight the United State\u2019s \u201csynchronized strategic deterrence,\u201d also included Indo-Pacific Command\u2019s area of operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additionally, B-1s from the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota carried out a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2020\/05\/29\/b-1bs-complete-bomber-task-force-mission-with-ukrainian-turkish-aircraft-for-the-first-time\/\">Bomber Task Force mission<\/a> in Europe and the Black Sea region with Ukrainian Su-27 Flankers and MiG-29 Fulcrums, and Turkish KC-135s for the first time ever on May 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More recently, two B-52s from the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota participated in a long-range strategic Bomber Task Force mission earlier this month as part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2020\/06\/17\/b-52s-fly-from-minot-to-baltics-to-support-naval-exercise\/\">Baltic Operations maritime exercise<\/a>, which involved 28 maritime units and 28 aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Specifically, one of the bombers flew with British and French aircraft assigned to the NATO\u2019s Baltic Air Policing mission, and the other conducted a low-approach over the U.S. Navy command ship Mount Whitney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI would fully expect over time we\u2019re going to continue to execute these,\u201d Harrigian said. \u201cWe have found great value in these Bomber Task Force missions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force anticipates conducting multi-week Bomber Task Force deployments in Europe. Last year, B-2s from the 509th Bomb Wing out of Whiteman conducted a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/08\/27\/b-2-stealth-bombers-deploy-to-europe\/\">Bomber Task Force deployment<\/a> starting in April at RAF Fairford in England, as did B-52s from the 2nd Bomb Wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/10\/10\/b-52-stratofortresses-deploy-to-england\/\">based out of Barksdale<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harrigian predicted that those kinds of deployments will pick up again at some point, in conjunction with shorter Bomber Task Force missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSome have asked me when we\u2019re going to go back to Fairford and those type of activities,\u201d Harrigian said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to get into the details of that, but at some point we will continue those operations as we have previously executed, as we continue to execute these that launch from the CONUS.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Long-range bomber missions launched from the continental U.S. &#8220;ensure that as we continue to refine what I\u2019ll call our muscle memory to operate across Europe,\u201d said Air Force Gen. Jeff Harrigian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":34906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":67,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","good-news-report","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[101,24,88,16,26,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3383],"class_list":["post-16552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"PC45ZZPKXFEPPBGA4TG6URJIBQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2020\/06\/30\/despite-pandemic-air-force-continues-long-range-bomber-task-force-missions-in-europe\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Despite pandemic, Air Force continues long-range Bomber Task Force missions in Europe - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Long-range bomber missions launched from the continental U.S. &quot;ensure that as we continue to refine what I\u2019ll call our muscle memory to operate across Europe,\u201d said Air Force Gen. 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