U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa announced that American B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers accompanied by military aircraft from twenty-one other NATO nations flew over all 30 NATO member states today. Those would include the five that border Russia – Norway, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – of course.
The B-52s (designed to carry nuclear weapons during the Cold War), like their fellow nuclear-capable long-range bombers the B-1 and B-2, started deployment to Europe in 2018 under the aegis of the Pentagon’s Bomber Task Force and so far this year have maintained a ready presence in Europe, in one instance landing at a Norwegian air base within the Arctic Circle.
Today’s transcontinental flights were codenamed Operation Allied Sky and were the second such since last August when six B-52s accompanied by 80 NATO fighter jets flew over the thirty member states in a single day. The message sent by the operations shouldn’t be difficult to understand.
Currently the B-52s are based at the Morón Air Base in Spain under NATO arrangements, as four, soon to be six, U.S. guided-missile destroyers equipped with interceptor missiles are based at the Naval Station Rota in the same nation, also under NATO auspices.
The NATO allies providing warplanes to escort the American nuclear-era bombers were Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey.
If you’re one of two nations in Europe not enrolled in (conscripted, dragooned into) NATO’s continental military phalanx – in other words, if you’re Russia and Belarus – the handwriting is in the sky.
General Jeff Harrigian, jointly NATO Allied Air Command and U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa commander (to demonstrate there’s no difference between the Pentagon and NATO), said of today’s unambiguous spectacle, “Today’s mission is an awesome demonstration of NATO air superiority and together there is no challenge we cannot tackle.”
The Harrigians of the world, both in North America and Europe, appear to be preparing a pyrotechnical extravaganza the likes of which humanity has been spared until now. One that could dwarf in comparison the horrors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima – by several orders of magnitude.
But it’s all in a day’s work. Nothing for the world to take note of – so it appears.
Rick Rozoff is a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He has been involved in anti-war and anti-interventionist work in various capacities for forty years. He lives in Chicago, Illinois. He is the manager of Stop NATO. This originally appeared at Anti-Bellum.
The US Air Force appears to have flown a single B-52 bomber in this exercise. It is one of a total of 74, and the plane entered service approximately 66 years ago.
The Russians must be quaking in their boots from such an “awesome demonstration”.
Hahaha! Yeah, like hell! If anything, Russia’s endless patience with these empty headed fools, recently worn thin — continues holding out, as it seems Allies of a different kind, are afoot that will end up neutralizing the “air-superior” NATO once and for all …
If I were a citizen of one of these countries, I would feel ashamed. I would feel these flights represent the occupation force flying over my country to celebrate their dominance on “their war celebrating day.” Here is a response I received from a Greek after I questioned Greek leaders’ promoting regime change in Syria:
Mate! WE GREEKS are UNDER OCCUPATION
See 08/05/2010 Memorandum of Understanding
Greeks are fighting for the right of the Greeks, Syrians & Eastern Ukrainians, generally all OPPRESSED PEOPLE
The Greek “Government” are of the same colour as Erdogan’s. i.e. ORGANISED CRIME FAMILIES–IdonAkarnan
@IdonAkarnan
“Currently the B-52s are based at the Moron Air Base in Spain”
I adjusted the name of the air base. More apt and it applies to all military bases.
Agreed.
Another way to see these exercises is as a giant bluff. There are no signs that “old Europe”, meaning the western “core”, has any desire to get into a kinetic war with anyone. European armies are no doubt well trained; but they are also well educated and can easily see there is no vital honor or justification to go to war. Russia has shown incredible restraint in view of the many sanctions and accusations against it. There are so many more urgent and worrisome issues domestically. It is very very hard to see how military exercises, that receive no mention in the press, are going to galvanize Europe. Sorry to disappoint the American hawks.
http://thesaker.is/the-eus-eastern-periphery/
The EU’s Eastern Periphery.