Press Conference 19th March

[Thunder]

Can’t understand why the press conference isn’t until the 19th, when all the aircraft will have arrived! The rumour mill will be exhausted by then!

It always is, is it not? Same as football clubs don’t hold a press conference before they sign a £100m player.

[Morseman]

A lot of mention of the 29 March, is this in support of May.

[MRTT]

USAF launching a strategic bombing campaign on Brussels?

[ChrisCwmbran]

USAF launching a strategic bombing campaign on Brussels?

We can only wish

[Outpost]

EUexit.

[Agent K]

USAF launching a strategic bombing campaign on Brussels?

We can only wish

Why? It'd be more useful turned on the despotic tory government and it's abysmal opposition.

[baz1]

and have heard a rumour a Blackbird coming out of retirement for Top cover

[thevulcan]

Do the bombers have to file a transatlantic crossing plan? If so would they be publishing one soon?

[Spitfire88]

Friday or possibly Saturday now for buffs arrivals, depending on weather.

[thevulcan]

Thank you Spitfire88. Do you think they will come over in groups as if they come over as one big group they would need a lot of tanker support.

[bizfreeq]

Barksdale to Fairford is roughly half the unrefuelled combat range of a B-52

[thevulcan]

Wow I did not know that. sorry guys

[bizfreeq]

Apology unnecessary, can't know everything!

[thevulcan]

Indeed. Thanks bizfreeq for the information. Does anyone know if anything is due tomorrow?

[davegard]

Don't forget the Bombers often top-up their fuel before crossing the pond in the AR-20NE track over Nova Scotia.

It should be possible to see when AR-20NE is active to give an idea about arrivals.

Dave (was 4 miles 09 finals at FFD) now 20 miles northwest and probably won't see a thing!

[stamford4782]

Interesting that they may possibly refuel. Given the combat range of 8800 miles and on the assumption they will not be carrying ammo that should increase range. By no means an expert on this subject but I would have thought that they would start with sufficient fuel for the journey unless they want to restrict weight. Is my assumption incorrect.

[graham luxton]

They have the range to fly from Barksdale to Fairford (as has already been pointed out) but air refuelling, if it happens, may be a training requirement.

[stamford4782]

Thanks. Good point, would be interesting to know how many flights the B52's do each year. Presumably the deployments are an opportunity to practise refuelling on longer flights as I suspect they do not to many trips of this duration.

[Yammer]

I think they do plenty of long distance flights as a standard part of these global mission. Global Power, deployments to hot sandy place, pan Pacific flights to challenge China. Long long missions have been their forte for the past fifty years and more.

[Yammer]

The doc below is worth a read if you want to have an overview of AFGSC today


https://www.afgsc.af.mil/Portals/51/Doc ... 8789451698