B-2A Sprit bombers deploy to Guam, or so everyone was thinking.

 

The 509th Bomb Wing has played the ultimate ruse focusing everyone’s attention on the West of Continental U.S. whilst what was really going on was happening to the East.

 

Report: Jaryd Stock

Images: Jaryd Stock & Steve Valinski

 

 

(ORIGINAL ARTICLE PUBLISHED 5am AEST)

Scroll down for updated report.

 

 

The U.S. Air Force has moved according to online reports approximately six B‑2A ‘Spirit’ aircraft from the 509th Bomb Wing based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to the Western Pacific, staging them for operations at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. 

Wether this is a Bomber Task Force rotation which is routinely undertaken by the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command/ U.S. Pacific Air Forces around this time of year to coincide with biannual Exercise Talisman Sabre conducted in Australia which will be held next month, or as posturing to a forward deployed base for future operations against Iran remains to be seen.

The deployment comes as mounting speculation grows over the United States possible involvement in the Israel vs Iran war by conducting strikes using the B-2 bomber fleet.  These stealth bombers are capable of carrying two of the 30,000‑lb GBU‑57 “Massive Ordnance Penetrator” (MOP) or commonly referred to as the bunker buster bomb designed to strike deeply buried targets like Iran’s Fordow nuclear site in the central North of the country.

 

 

Online tracking data publicly accessible on late Friday evening early Saturday morning U.S. time shows two flights of B-2’s departing Whiteman Air Force Base assisted by KC-135R Stratotankers and KC-46A Pegasus aerial refuelling aircraft from Altus and Travis Air Force Bases heading west towards the Pacific Ocean.

The Tanker aircraft transponders were left on so they could be tracked by online flight radars, also Air Traffic Control radio chatter from the flight was publicly accessible, as online aviation sleuths as well as mainstream news teams which had been camping outside the gates of Whiteman AFB, we’re trying to track the movements of the aircraft.

The tanker transponders remaining on during the flight and the publicly accessible ATC radio chatter highlights that the U.S. administration and U.S. Air Force wanted this particular movement of B-2’s to be publicly known and was a geo political statement, if they didn’t this movement to be known the accessible information wouldn’t have got out.

Earlier in the year the 509th Bomb Wing based at Whiteman sent six B-2’s to Diego Garcia and on departure from Whiteman all six aircraft headed West over the Pacific. For this deployment the stealth bombers were supported by tanker aircraft staged at various locations such as Hawaii and Pago Pago, and Interestingly Cairns in Northern Australia.

The reason why the tankers were based in Cairns was because the B-2’s flight plan was to fly over the Northern tip of Australia which was planned to keep strict Operational Security and was easier for U.S. Air Force to gain permission from a U.S. strategic partner to fly the stealth aircraft in the countries airspace rather than gaining several approvals from other countries which would increase the chances of operational security infringements.

And since no tankers have been stationed in Australia for this particular B-2 movement conducted on the evening of June 19th,  it’s more speculation at this stage but this current B-2 deployment could be a planned BTF rotation to the Western Pacific Island, with potential for the famed aircraft to either conduct missions over Iran from Guam which would be highly unlikely, or to forward deploy to Diego Garcia from the Western Pacific Island in the future.

Media outlet Reuters reported this morning that, “U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said no forward orders had been given yet to move the bombers beyond Guam. They did not say how many B-2 bombers are being moved.”

What is to be stressed at the moment is it is unclear what the B-2 deployment is for, what is certain though is the crews of the 509thBW won’t be idle. They will still be carrying out training to hone their skills whilst in Guam.

Currently four B-52H Stratofortresses and six F-15E Strike Eagles are forward deployed to Diego Garcia, the B-52 presence has been on the strategically located island since taking over from the B-2 deployment earlier in the year.

President Trump has given two weeks to make a decision in joining Israel in striking targets in Iran, with the President the time of writing was hours away from a scheduled meeting with his National Security Council.

UPDATED REPORT READ HERE, Published as of 12:24pm AEST 22/06.

 

President Trump held an announcement at the White House only 25 minutes ago where he announced that the U.S. Air Force coordinating with the U.S. Navy conducted strikes on three targets in Iran.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” President Trump stated on the Truth Social network.

It appears that the deployment of initially estimated to be around six B-2A Spirit aircraft which was thought to be heading for Andersen AFB, Guam was a spectacular ruse orchestrated by the U.S. military using social media intel pundits and mainstream media.

There are many unknowns to this particular mission so there can only be speculation based on what is readily available publicly, but there was reports on X that a user saw nine B-2’s heading Eastbound over continental U.S.  but that post has since been deleted.

As discussed the tankers heading West towards the Pacific all had their transponders on and easily tracked by online flight radars and even radio chatter was heard of possible B-2 pilots talking to ATC.

 

 

But it appears at least some of the six B-2’s turned 180 degrees after departing Whiteman, and joined a further several stealth bomber aircraft that secretly departed the base and went completely black- with the supporting tanker aircraft supporting the B-2 mission to the Middle East also going completely black, meaning there was no communications between strike package and ATC, or aircraft transponders turned on.

President Trump stated in his annoucment, “All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors.”

The Iranian nuclear enrichment facility at Fordow was known to be buried deeply inside a mountain with the only non nuclear weapon able to penetrate and destroy the secretive bunker facility being GBU-57 Bunker Busters.

U.S. Navy submarines combined with the B-2 strike by hitting targets at Natanz and Esfahan with BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

One thing is clear and basing of the assumptions that six B-2’s did indeed fly to Guam and nine aircraft flew Eastbound from the United States to the Middle East and conducted strikes on Fordow, that is 15 out of 19 B-2A Spirit aircraft currently in operation with the U.S. Air Force in the air at the same time.

That is incredible feat for the 509th Bomb Wing and more importantly the maintainers and crews to achieve that deception and carry out the mission on a nearly 40 year old incredibly sophisticated aircraft.

Even if it’s half that number the ability for the 509th to deploy that power globally is a testament to the crews that operate the Spirit which was unveiled to the public at Palmdale in 1988.

It will be revealed later in time how this mission was carried out and how the Pentagon played the ultimate magic trick getting everyone to focus on the left hand while the real trick was being conducted by the right hand- but it has been well played to get everyone focusing elsewhere.

 

 

SEE OUR OTHER B-2A SPIRIT RELATED CONTENT ON YOUTUBE.