Adding to constant tensions between the US and Russia, Russian officials reported that a US B-52 bomber made a surprise approach toward their Hmeimim Airbase, in western Syria.
The bomber showed up off the coast of Greece, and made a run toward
Syrian airspace, before cutting away and going into Jordan instead. US
officials are not saying what they actually were doing there.
Russians are speculating this was related to Russia’s deactivation of an
S-400 defense system near Hmeimim, which would leave the site more
vulnerable. They believe the US was trying to “scare” Russia.
Such a circumstance would probably never be confirmed by the US, and
while the US likes to keep a lot of warplanes active in and around
Syria, they rarely will comment on what they intend, beyond proving they
can fly where they want.
Eh, what could happen ?
Now this is interesting. It suggests that the US wants to gain intelligence on a possible Russian response to a B-52 bombing campaign in Lebanon.
The US sent four (or two, not sure of the number) B-52s to the Middle East a while back. My belief is that they are intended to conduct a large-scale tactical bombing of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
B-52’s are the one thing Israel doesn’t have and the one thing that can force Hezbollah to keep under cover and reduce missile launches against Israel in the event of another Israeli war against Hezbollah.
You don’t conduct missions like this to “scare” people. You do it to gain intelligence by monitoring SIGINT to determine what the opposition is doing when they see your move.
And you have a purpose for doing this – not just “scaring” people. It’s part of your planning process for potential military action. The US isn’t going to start bombing Russian forces in Syria and the Russians know it. But they could quite possibly start bombing Lebanese and would like to know what Russia might do about that given that Russia has been offering “military cooperation” to the Lebanese military (which the Lebanese PM has just once again denied the accusation that he is delaying a decision on that deal.)
According to Air Force Times…likely 4 B-1b were sent to Saudi Arabia. Likely 4, as 4 were witnessed departing their South Dakota base about 2 weeks ago. This accompanies a f-22 wing from earlier, and unknown number of f-35s. Doubtful this deployment will register on the “troop deployment” numbers.
Interesting that the administration releases these nuke capable bomber deployments. They did the same when bombers were sent to Guam a week before the Hanoi summit. Spanky loves to whip out his nukes and wave em around.
Just looked up the B-52’s – four were sent back in May of this year. So if they’ve now sent another four 5-1bs – which are Rockwell B-1 Lancers, a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber – that means they now have *eight* strategic bombers in the region (assuming the B-52s didn’t rotate back.)
Oops, just looked up some more info. The B-1s apparently have come back from what is described as a “short trIp” to Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, some B-52s and B-2s are being sent to Europe – to threaten Russia, apparently.
Apparently one of the B-52s sent to Europe lost a part over
England which fell in some woman’s garden. LOL I’ll bet that impressed the Russians!
They’ve also flown B-52s in the last few days over the South and East China Sea, apparently to threaten China.
According to Esper, the US has sent 14,000 additional forces since May to the area, which includes the 3,000 sent to Saudi Arabia after the Houthis attack.
Apparently using the #b52 hashtag, you can track B-52 movements on Twitter, thanks to people with an inordinate interest in tracking aircraft.
According to another piece I just read, out of 62 B-1s in the fleet, only six were “ready to deploy” in an August review.
Since then, they’ve reportedly achieved a 52 per cent readiness rate. The 20 B-2 Spirit stealth bombers in service are 61 per cent operational. The 75 B-52s are 69 percent functional.
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The B-1s apparently have come back from what is described as a “short trIp” to Saudi Arabia
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What’s telling is not just where they are at any given moment. It’s where they’re going, how often, etc.
So some B-1s flew to Saudi Arabia and then came back. Why? Presumably 1) to test conditions and train (ground crews, runways and other facilities, etc.) for contingencies involving B-1s operating in that area, 2) to rattle sabers at someone (Iran, Turkey, whoever), or 3) both.