B-1 bombers arrive in Guam for the first task force in 2025

Four U.S. B-1 bombers landed in Guam on January 15 for the deployment of the Bomber Task Force, the first of the new year.

Two of the bombers also completed a trilateral flight with Japanese and South Korean fighters en route to Andersen Air Force Base.

Photos posted by the 28th Bomb Wing show four B-1s assigned to the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron from Ellsworth Air Force Base, SD, arriving in the western Pacific. Bomber Task Forces involve small parties of B-1s, B-2s or B-52s deployed overseas, often visiting far-flung countries to reassure allies and partners and deter adversaries such as Russia and China.

This latest inauguration started just days before the US presidential inauguration, an important transitional moment.

On the same day, B-1s carrying two Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-2s and two Republic of Korea Air Force F-15Ks flew somewhere in the airspace between Japan and South Korea. The US had previously flown bilateral fighter jets with either Japan or South Korea, but the trilateral flight reflects growing ties between the three countries in response to tensions with China and North Korea.

“This first trilateral flight in 2025 builds on a history of strong trilateral cooperation that enables an immediate coordinated response to regional security challenges,” Pacific Air Forces said in a publication then.

The first Bomber Task Force in 2025 comes after a series of milestones in 2024 – for the first time, US bombers operated out of Romania, flew over and dropped simulated weapons on Finland in a training mission, and completed a multi-day deployment to Sweden.

“On any given day, we are actively engaged through Bomber Task Force missions,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, 8th Air Force and Joint-Global Strike Operations Center commander, said in a Jan. 21 statement. press release.

“In fact, about 60 percent of the year we are deployed to a theater or providing continental US (CONUS)-to-CONUS flights in support of theaters or in support of the United States Strategic Command and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” he said.

In addition to strengthening foreign partnerships, the deployments also test crew endurance over 30-hour flights, Lt. Col. Vanessa Wilcox, 96th Bomb Squadron commander, said in April press release after her B-52 detachment returned from Diego Garcia, a remote island in the Indian Ocean.

“Flying for over 24 hours, pushing into the 30-hour range, is a challenge,” she said. “It builds on our readiness, training for the capabilities we need to reach different parts of the globe, specifically across the Pacific.”