U.S. deploys three powerful B-2 stealth bombers to Guam amid cooling tensions on Korean Peninsula

[jpak]

Source: Japan Times

The U.S. Air Force has sent three B-2 nuclear-capable stealth bombers to Andersen Air Force Base on the island territory of Guam amid cooling tensions with North Korea.

Around 200 airmen from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri were recently deployed to Andersen in support of the U.S. Pacific Command’s Bomber Assurance and Deterrence mission.

“During this short-term deployment, the B-2s will conduct local and regional training sorties and will integrate capabilities with key regional partners, ensuring bomber crews maintain a high state of readiness and crew proficiency,” the U.S. Pacific Air Forces said on its website.

The U.S. Strategic Command regularly rotates bombers through the Indo-Pacific region to conduct Pacific Command-led air operations, “providing leaders with deterrent options to maintain regional stability,” the Pacific Air Forces said.

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Read more: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/01/11/asia-pacific/u-s-deploys-three-powerful-b-2-stealth-bombers-guam-amid-cooling-tensions-korean-peninsula/#.WldvkN-nHIU

[zipplewrath]

1. Wow, interesting description

U.S. deploys three powerful B-2 stealth bombers to Guam amid cooling tensions on Korean Peninsula

The U.S. Air Force has sent three B-2 nuclear-capable stealth bombers to Andersen Air Force Base on the island territory of Guam amid cooling tensions with North Korea

It's not that there is anything inaccurate about this. It's just that there are all these adjectives used in order to make it sound worse.

"Powerful" B-2 bombers. As if there are whimpy bombers we could have sent. Or that a missile battery would have been some how less "powerful".

"Nuclear-capable". That's pretty much every bomber in the fleet, unless they are missing some recent inspections, paperwork, or software updates. It includes no small number of fighter jets either.

And quite honestly, as interesting as this deployment is, B-2's regularly conduct mission out of Nebraska to targets all over the world. Putting them in Guam is mostly for show. It doesn't really raise any risk levels.

[Spouting1horn]

2. Warmonger Trump

is just trying to start some more trouble. We will be lucky if DPRK does not fire nukes at us because of his recklesness.

[xor]

3. Trump is an asshole and idiot

but I think the person you're replying to is spot on. This is the media trying to make this sound like more than it is. Nothing new.

Sending our larger bombers (whether B2, B1, or B52) isn't anything new under Trump. When President Obama was in office we had bombers sent to the region and to South Korea many times. Don't get me wrong, I'm concerned that Trump is itching for a fight and if he has his own way then we'd be in a state of war, but I don't think it's accurate to make it seem as if sending bombers to the region to intimidate North Korea is something new.

[john657]

4. Spot on.

Just about every president since 1954 has sent bombers and fighters into the Korean Peninsula, this is just the media trying to make it more than it really is.

[Baclava]

5. What The B-2's Arrival In Guam Means For North Korea

In August of 2016, B-1B bombers arrived at Andersen Air Force base on Guam to fulfill U.S. Pacific Command's continuous bomber assurance and deterrence mission. It was the first time the "Bone" had taken up station on Guam in over a decade, as the jets had spent years becoming the heavy-hitting all stars of America's air campaigns in the Middle East. Since then the B-52H has taken the B-1B's place in that troubled region, meanwhile a handful of B-1Bs have prowled around eastern Asia for a year and half, most famously flying near constant "show of force" missions near North Korean borders.

Now a trio of B-2As and 200 airmen to support them have arrived on Guam to augment, or even possibly relieve the B-1s deployed there. But the bat-winged bomber's presence there, or even a changing of the guard, isn't just about swapping one bomber out for another or adding more blunt firepower to the region. The B-2 brings highly unique capabilities to the theatre, ones that would be absolutely essential if the U.S. were to go after Kim Jong Un's regime, or even move to attack a far more limited target set in North Korea.

Primarily the B-2 brings an American airborne strategic nuclear strike capability back to the region—the B-1B's ability to employ nuclear weapons having been stripped from the type's mission set decades ago. But beyond that and the B-2's famed ability to penetrate deep into hostile territory undetected to drop as many as 80 independently guided weapons on a single run, the stealth bomber also brings the ability to attack with the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).

"The 40,000lb super-bunker buster will be absolutely essential for any major air war aimed at wiping out North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, as well as for destroying key regime targets, many of which are buried under mountains. Short of nuclear weapons, no other penetrating munition on earth stands a chance at destroying these targets, with temporarily sealing their entrances being the only other possibly feasible option short of a commando raid."



http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/17579/heres-what-the-b-2s-arrival-in-guam-means-for-north-korea-the-olympics-and-more