During the Arctic Defender exercise held in Alaska, two B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers from the United States Air Force (USAF) participated of the activities, marking a significant milestone. Approximately 500 personnel from the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, and France took part in the combined exercises, which aimed to train combat pilots in aerial combat operations following NATO standards.
As one of the main planners of this edition of Arctic Defender, which took place from July 8 to 18 in Fairbanks, Alaska, the German Air Force planned a scenario for the application of NATO’s Article 5 to be executed in Alaska’s airspace. This article states that if a NATO ally is the victim of an armed attack, all alliance members will consider it an act of violence against all members and will take the necessary measures to assist.
The participating aircraft included the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Lightning II; the U.S. Marine Corps’ F/A-18 Hornet; the French Air Force’s Rafale, Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport, and A400M Atlas; the German Air Force’s A400M Transport, Eurofighter, special forces helicopter H145M, and PA-200 Tornado; the Spanish Air Force’s Eurofighters; and the Royal Canadian Air Force’s CC-130H Hercules.
It is worth noting that Arctic Defender is the first of five individual exercises under the Pacific Skies 2024 deployment conducted between the Air Forces of Germany, Spain, and France in the Indo-Pacific region. Following the Alaska deployment, the next stages continued in Japan with the Bilateral Exercise Nippon Skies (from July 22 to 25) and currently Exercise Pitch Black in Australia. The next phases will proceed with Tarang Shakti in India.
In this context, two B-52H Stratofortress bombers from the United States Air Force’s Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota also participated, despite their involvement not being initially expected. The official statement mentions that the B-52 crews used Arctic Defender to train for large-scale force employment in Minot AFB’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) Exercise. The crew also faced typical logistical challenges of such exercises, including adapting to dynamic mission changes and coordinating real-time data updates while in flight.
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