US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

The U.S.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

is planning more shorter strategic bomber rotations in order to test its agility when

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

its heavy aircraft forces around the world, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command said Wednesday.

"I am focused a lot on a different operational mentality in the command, to think about great power competition," Gen Timothy Ray told reporters during a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington, D.C.

Ray, who previously served as deputy commander of U.S. European Command, said he was against a "steady bomber force" in Europe, or anywhere in the world for that matter.

"Why would I do that?" Ray said. "Why wouldn't I [instead] bring significant combat capability to the theater in a time and place of our choosing and...bring regional stability [to allies and partners?]"

Last month, the command

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

six

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

and more than 400 personnel from the 2nd Bomb Wing at

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, Louisiana, to

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, England for a month-long rotation.

The

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, in support of U.S. Strategic Command's "Bomber Task Force" exercise, marked the largest deployment of one bomber platform to Europe since 2003, when the command had nearly 20 bombers at Fairford in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In the most recent deployment, the last of the bombers and airmen and four

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

's worth of support equipment departed

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, Air Force Times reported.

The European theater has

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

at least once a year as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The Pentagon sent two

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

bombers and three B-52s

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

for training events days after then-President Barack Obama announced he would increase U.S. military presence in the region -- an apparent response to Russia's actions. Since then, the bomber variants -- including the

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

-- have operated in European airspace alongside NATO allies.

"I think that signals a little bit more of the dynamic approach that we're going to take," Ray said.

In the latest rotation, B-52s were

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

and over the the Baltic, Norwegian and Mediterranean Seas. They had conducted simulations with Joint Terminal Attack controllers

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

and

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, and

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

to support the NATO Icelandic Air Surveillance mission, according to multiple releases and media reports.

When asked if the

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

that additional U.S. bomber deployments are expected, Ray said, "The world should take [that] into account."

"We're going to go to Central Command, we're going to go to the Pacific. We're going to go to lots of places," he added.

The reasoning behind the strategic shift is to exercise a "dynamic force employment," Ray said. "To bring long range precision strike into any theater ... along with our allies," he said.

Meanwhile, nuclear-capable B-52s from the 5th Bomb Wing,

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, North Dakota, have been training in the Pacific

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

there, and have been spotted a few times near the East and South China Seas

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

.

With an uptick in global competition from Russia in Europe and China in the Pacific, agility "is something we need to be very good at," Ray said.

The general did not say which bomber variant would deploy next as part of the new strategy, or when the deployment would take place.

Click to expand...

NASHVILLE, Tennessee—The U.S. Army will make a decision on

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Block II Chinooks and whether the aircraft fits into its Future Vertical Lift strategy as the service continues to work with

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

on future options, the service’s vice chief of staff says.

The Army acknowledges it has not worked out how to maintain the CH-47 industrial base if it does not purchase CH-47F Block IIs. But it is discussing the issue with Boeing, Gen. James McConville, Army vice chief of staff who is nominated to be chief of staff, told reporters here at the Quad-A Army aviation conference on April 16.

Click to expand...

Jura said:

presumably fancy
These are the five areas where the Air Force wants to see an explosion of technology

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

are

Complexity, Unpredictability and Mass

Speed and Reach of Disruption and Lethality

Global Persistent Awareness

Resilient Information Sharing

Rapid, Effective Decision Making

Click to expand...

Brumby said:

U.S. Army Must Decide CH-47F Block II’s Fate

Source :AWST article

Click to expand...

Jura said:

Apr 10, 2019
so,

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

The Army wants to keep its options open on upgrading its heaviest cargo helicopter. Boeing is worried the window of opportunity -- and its factory -- will close before the Army makes up its mind.
... goes on below due to size limit

Click to expand...

gelgoog said:

I hope they will upgrade them. The Chinook still has no replacement.

Click to expand...