Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire US B-52 Bombers Fly in Country Bordering Ukraine

Did Kameltoe send them?

Left to the idiots running DC and Europe, they could start a real war.

Link to story

By Zachary Stieber March 5, 2022



U.S. B-52 bombers flew over a country that borders Ukraine, the U.S. military announced March 4.

The B-52 Stratofortress aircraft conducted a long-range “integration flight,” according to U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa.

The bombers took off from a base in England and headed to Germany to conduct an exercise alongside U.S. and German troops known as joint terminal attack controllers, who call strikes down from forward positions in the field.

The training mission included training in conjunction with Romania, a NATO ally that shares a border with Ukraine.

The exercises “give us a critical opportunity to integrate and train with our allies and partners, especially during this difficult time,” Gen. Jeff Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa and NATO’s Allied Air Command, said in a statement.

“Training together ensures the defensive power of NATO remains unmatched,” he added.

Russia invaded Ukraine, which is not in NATO, on Feb. 24, and fighting has continued in the country since then.

According to the Air Force, the Stratofortress is a long-range bomber that can fly at “high subsonic speeds at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet” and can carry nuclear or conventional bombs.

In a conflict, the military says, the B-52 “can perform strategic attack, close-air support, air interdiction, offensive counter-air, and maritime operations.”

U.S. President Joe Biden has refused to send the U.S. military into Ukraine to help the Ukrainians, a position supported by most Americans, but ordered the deployment of troops to Poland and other NATO allies to be prepared to join the fray should Russia attack a NATO member.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called on NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which would likely lead to U.S.-Russia battles in the air.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a briefing in Brussels on Friday that “We are not part of this conflict, and we have a responsibility to ensure it does not escalate and spread beyond Ukraine,” in answering why NATO is not going to enforce a no-fly zone. U.S. officials have outlined similar reasoning.

Zelensky later criticized NATO, alleging the alliance’s members “want to continue” the “harsh war” by making the decision “not to close the airspace in Ukraine.”

“We believe that NATO member states have created themselves a narrative that the closure of the airspace in Ukraine would provoke direct aggression from Russia against NATO. It’s self-induced hypnosis of those who are weak and lack confidence, even though they can possess arms stronger than ours,” he said in Kyiv, adding, “All the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you, because of your weakness, because of your lack of unity.”

U.S. military spokesman John Kirby, meanwhile, said during a briefing Friday that U.S. officials and Russian counterparts had established a “deconfliction line” amid the war.

“We think it’s valuable to have a direct communication vehicle … to reduce the risks of miscalculation,” Kirby told reporters in Washington,” and to be able to communicate in real time if need be, particularly because now the airspace over Ukraine is contested by both Russian and Ukrainian aircraft, so that contested airspace now buttresses right up against NATO. Smart thing to do, and we’re glad it’s in place, we’re glad that the Russians have acknowledged that they will use it.”

sad tho, we only have about 100 B 52s left in inventory....

a Conflict like this could quickly eliminate the entire fleet of them...we have NO replacements...

Have no fear at least our military can use the proper pronoun to describe what gender they are feeling like on any part day.

Since all the D models we modified with the big bomb bay for increased payload and used in Nam are now in the mothball fleet at Davis-Monthan, flying the nuke-only capable H models near Ukraine is just saber-rattling unless Senile Joe really intends to start playing Armageddon games. The D's we flew from Guam, Okinawa, and Thailand carried 34 750 pounders internally, and 24 500's on under wing pylons. A 3-ship cell over a single target was known as a "gang bang".

I'm not so sure gerbils aren't already running around in Putin's head. Add in his troubles on the home front. I doubt the sabre rattling B52's will improve anything.

"H" models are capable of carrying conventional munitions now...
Four BUFs flew into RAF Fairford a few weeks ago. I watched the two BUFs the article is talking about flying the mission live on ADS-B Exchange a few mornings ago.

There's no way a Buff could do "close air support" without precision-guided conventional bombs/weapons. The report I read said that CAS training/coordination was a part of the mission profile the B-52s flew yesterday.

"Close enough" is GTG for horse shoes, hand grenades and nuclear warfare...

BUFF's did close air support in Afghanistan with precision guided munitions.

Smoke the Convoy Now .. What we got to do ask Jesus to bring General Schwartzcoff out his Eternal Sleep.
Gawd this ain’t Rocket Science..

The H Models have been capable of carrying conventional weapons for the last 40 years

Check your history books. Operation Niagara (B52’s & others) provided close air support during the siege of Khe Shan.

Oh Nice .. Can we Break Something..

We (actually They) seem determined to do so.

👌
I left the Air Force in '79 and at that time H models were loaded primarily with nukes. Wasn't sure when they were adapted to accept conventional stuff.

We need to consider weather you are a Confederate or Union Yankee. What Putin has done is the same track POTUS Lincoln of the Union took in 1861. The Confederate States of America seceded from the union. After the death of Stalin in 1953, the Ukrainian Khrushchev as head of the Communist Party of Soviet Union enabled a Ukrainian revival, and in 1954 the republic expanded to the south with the transfer of Crimea from Russia. Nevertheless, political repressions continued, as in all other parts of the USSR.Ukraine became independent again when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. This started a period of transition to a market economy, in which Ukraine suffered an eight-year recession.Economic crisis in 2008 and the economy plunged. The Ukrainian parliament impeached Yanukovych on 22 February 2014. On 22–23 February, the Russo-Ukrainian War started when Russian forces entered Crimea, as a result Crimea, became part of Russia.The War in Donbas started in Donetsk of Ukraine involving pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian mercenaries. The crisis negatively influenced the Ukrainian economy. On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the country. See the similarities of our Civil War. We separated from the Union. Took over all military bases in our sovereign nation. Then POTUS Lincoln attacked to regain the union as 26 states; just as Putin, wanting his country as it was under the USSR. As I see it, you are a Yankee if you support Putin, or you are a Confederate if you support Ukraine. Union attacked from the North and then operation Anaconda closed all of the ocean ports and the Mississippi River. Putin has done he same thing if you carefully look at the current war map. What is your choice? States rights or the New World Order by POTUS Obiden.

Late 1980 early 1981 we configured H’s as part of the Strategic Projection Force configured for conventional (and nukes too). I flew several low-level (very, very low level) Red Flag missions out of GFAFB, ND dropping 500 lb high drag Mark 82 “Snake-Eyes” on targets in the Nevada desert.

They tried to turn the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan into gravel pits and flush out Bin Laden with conventional bombs- - - - -didn't work really well. The big belly D's could have probably done a better job, if we hadn't worn them out blasting away at Southeast Asia.

Sounds to me like they are poking the bear!

Dang! That's a lot of ordnance!