Friday, Air Force Reserve KC-10 Extender aircrews from the 514th Air Mobility Wing, here, refueled the B-52 Stratofortress, out of Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, on the bomber’s journey to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.
The Combined Joint Task Force in Qatar will use the weapon system as part of Operation Inherent Resolve in strategic airstrikes in efforts to degrade and defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
This movement marks the heavy bomber’s first deployment to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility since Desert Storm.
The B-52 is a long-range, heavy bomber that can perform a variety of missions to include carrying nuclear or precision guided conventional ordnance with worldwide precision navigation capability. The H model can carry up to 20 air launched cruise missiles. In addition, it can carry the conventional cruise missile that was launched in several contingencies during the 1990s, starting with Operation Desert Storm and culminating with Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Of note, each aircraft within the U.S. Air Force inventory is designed for a specific tasks.
While the B-52 will “deliver desired airpower effects," according to said Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command and Combined Forces Air Component
KC-10 tanker aircrews will continue to do what they do best – deliver gas to U.S. military and NATO partners, enabling receiving aircraft to get to its designated location and return to home station.