Key Points and Summary – Demand for the U.S. bomber fleet is at a record high, according to Air Force Global Strike Command’s Gen. Thomas Bussiere.
-In the last 18 months, bombers have been dispatched on 48 task force missions and eight “no-notice activations,” including the B-2 strike on Iranian nuclear sites.
-This intense operational tempo is so demanding that the Air Force is now considering pulling retired B-1B Lancer bombers out of the “boneyard.”
-This surge in military activity around the globe presents a stark contrast to the Trump administration’s stated goal of ending foreign wars.
U.S. Bombers Are So Busy They Might Be Pulled From a ‘Plane Graveyard’
An Air Force general said in an interview this week that demand remains at “record-high levels” for US bombers, for everything from military exercises to full-on combat missions.
“In the last 18 months, I have seen more activity and more demand signals for bombers than I have seen probably in the last, at least, five to 10 years,” Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Thomas Bussiere, who has been nominated to serve as the next vice chief of staff for the Air Force, told Air & Space Forces Magazine in an interview published Thursday.
Gen. Bussiere told the outlet that bomber task forces have been dispatched 48 times within the 18-month period.
“The Air Force began sending its roughly 140 bombers out in small groups rather than basing them overseas for longer stretches to protect them from attack,” the report said.
US aircraft have engaged in “cross-combatant command events,” in which, the magazine described it, “bombers zig-zag from one continent to another—and possibly to a third—before returning stateside.”
Activations
“If that wasn’t enough, in the last 18 months, we had eight no-notice activations of our bomber forces; all three platforms—B-1, B-2, and B-52,” the general said in the story.
That includes, of course, the June 21 mission in which B-2s took off from Missouri to bomb Iranian nuclear sites, before returning home. Another group, it was reported at the time, took off in the other direction, towards the Pacific, for a decoy.
On other occasions, the story said, at least six B-2s were deployed to Diego Garcia, including strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
“Our allies and partners love to train and integrate with our bomber force and their regional combatant commands love to have us participate in their training exercises,” the general told the outlet.
Return of the Retired B-1B Lancers?
The demand is so high that Bussiere told Air and Space Forces that the Air Force is considering pulling more B-1B Lancers from the “plane graveyard” at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
“There’s still a few left in the boneyard that we could potentially pull out if needed,” the general told the outlet, although doing so is not a certainty.
There is a Limit
However, there does appear to be a limit to where American warplanes can go.
In early July, US Representatives Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) introduced a bipartisan bill in the House called the “Bunker Buster Act,” which would provide Israel with Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), or bunker-buster bombs, as well as “the aircraft required to deploy it.”
Gottheimer had introduced a similar bill in 2022 and 2024, but neither ever progressed towards becoming law. Those times were before the US bombing of Iran, with the bombs in question, as they did in June.
However, there’s a problem with the bill: The B-2 bomber is what the US uses to carry bunker-busters, the US has only 19 of them, and the US “does not transfer custody of its B-2 stealth bombers to any of its allies.”
The B-21 Raider will succeed the B-2, but it won’t enter service until the 2030s, and it’s not clear yet if the US will make it available to other countries.
Donald the Dove?
The planes being busy point out a contradiction about the second Trump era: Donald Trump came back into office promising to end wars, especially in the Middle East and in Russia/Ukraine, and to avoid starting new ones.
But the US, under Trump, has been engaging in military missions all over the world, to the point where its bombers are uncommonly busy.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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