Lending a proactive push to Asia’s biggest air show Aero India, the United States (US) on Tuesday landed two B-1B Lancers at the Yelahanka air base in Bengaluru in a move that underlines a deepening strategic partnership with India.
Considered the backbone of the US long range bombing capabilities, the B-1 heavy bomber can undertake missions all across the globe from its home bases in the US.
The B-1’s appearance on Indian soil for just the second time follows the first ever landing of the latest fifth-generation fighter—the multirole stealth F-35—on Monday.
The first ever landing of the B-1 heavy bomber in India took place on February 3, 2021 during the last Aero India show.
Both the B-1 and the F-35 gave stunning displays of their powerful capabilities in an aerial display on Tuesday. The B-1 has the largest conventional payload of both guided and unguided weapons in the US Air Force.
A release issued by the US embassy quoted Major General Julian C. Cheater, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of the US Air Force, International Affairs, as saying: “The B-1 offers flexible options to senior leaders and combatant commanders. Greater integration with our Allies and partners throughout the region is a positive step towards greater interoperability.”
Rear Admiral Michael Baker, Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché at the US Embassy in New Delhi, said: “These bombers made the journey from South Dakota to Guam and then to India just to add another exciting dimension to Aero India 2023. It’s a long mission to travel from the continental U.S. to the Indian Ocean; but it was worth it to be part of the biggest air show in the region hosted by our Major Defense Partner, India.”
The US had deployed B-1 bombers along with about 200 airmen in the key military base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in August 2020 amid escalating tensions between India and China over the border dispute along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.
The India-China border row had led to loss of many lives when soldiers of both sides clashed in the Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020.
Aimed at sending a strong message to China, the 2020 move to deploy B-1 bombers was purported to ‘support allies’ and at ‘strategic deterrence’. An US air force release had then quoted Lt. Col. Ross Hobbs, 37th Bomb Squadron director of operations: “Global B-1 operations not only provide strategic deterrence to our nation’s adversaries, but also strong, palpable assurance to our allies.”
The US air force mainly operates three bombers—the B-1B ‘Lancer’, the B-2 ‘Spirit’, and the B-52 ‘Stratofortress’.
In the Indo-Pacific, the US has two major bases—the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and the Naval Support Facility in Diego Garcia.
