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The Captain continued: “The main task during the exercise SABER STRIKE is Close Air Support (CAS), like the B-1B pilots also executed before in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The main task during the exercise BALTOPS is just surveillance, using the radar to find the boats and portray a kind of advisory trying to penetrate and destroy the carriers too.” During the exercises the B-1s were also playing ‘Red Air’ to give the ships a general overview what they can expect. Sometimes they were also playing ‘Blue Air’ to show that they can fulfill both roles.
The Captain emphasized the significance of the deployment of the amount of bombers: “It was very important to have so many different bombers at RAF Fairford for these two exercises because it was to show the allied partners nations and show NATO that, no matter what will happen, we will support them with the bombers of the United States military. It’s also to show to any kind of aggressive state that we can move on a very short notice to a forward deploying location and execute a global strike wherever we want, at any time.”
Captain “Jackal” from the 34th Bomb Squadron, Ellsworth AFB spoke to Aviation Photojournal about his experiences flying in the B-1 and the deployment to RAF Fairford. He has five years in the B-1B and has accumulated about 1600 flight hours. He got his wings in 2012 after successfully completing the Undergraduate Combat System Officer Training at Pensacola.
Capt. “Jackal” highlighted the difference in scenarios between the both exercises: “Both the exercises BALTOPS and SABER STRIKE are different from the war we were fighting in the past 15 years.” The scenarios during BALTOPS were especially assaults and landings with troops. The scenarios during SABER STRIKE had large troop movements, infantry and vehicles like tanks in a contested environment with a potential for surface to air missiles."
APJ/Roelof-Jan Gort