The US Air Force’s (USAF) 2nd Bomb Wing B-52 Stratofortress aircrew has participated in exercise Immediate Response 2015, after carrying out a long-range bomber mission to the US European Command area of operations.
The unit flew from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and arrived in Postojna, Slovenia. The Bomb Wing worked with Slovenian and US joint terminal attack controllers to deliver close air support to allied forces.
96th Bomb Squadron operations assistant director captain Ryan Loucks said: "Exercise Immediate Response affords our combat aircrew an outstanding opportunity to train with our coalition partners and foster multinational integration within the region.
"It also allows us to exercise our capability to transit multiple areas of responsibility on a single mission and achieve very precise objectives on the ground in a very realistic scenario."
Exercise Immediate Response is a multinational, brigade-level event that conducts computer-assisted simulations and field training exercises in Croatia and Slovenia.
It is designed to improve regional stability, strengthen partner capacity and improve interoperability between partner nations, USAF stated.
8th Air Force commander major general Richard Clark said: "For our aircrews and support apparatus, these events not only provide an excellent opportunity to strengthen and improve interoperability, but they allow our bomber forces to train like we fight and exercise our long-range strike playbook in a practice scrimmage on the global gridiron."
In June, USAF sent three B-52s from Minot Air Force Base Royal Air Force Fairford, England to allow bombers train and integrate with US and allied military forces during exercises BALTOPS and Saber Strike.
The USAF deployed two Barksdale B-52s and two Minot B-52s in April to perform a nonstop roundtrip mission to the North Sea and Arctic regions.
Image: A B-52 Stratofortress aircrew makes its way to the aircraft before participating in exercise Immediate Response 2015. Photo: courtesy of US Air Force photo / Senior Airman Amanda Morris.
