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B-1 Bomber Lands North of the Arctic Circle
For the First Time Ever, a B-1 Bomber Landed Inside the Arctic Circle
Here's what the "Dark Knight" was doing there.
By Kyle Mizokami Published: Mar 15, 2021
Torbjørn Kjosvold / Forsvaret
A U.S. Air Force B-1B bomber landed at Norway's Bodø Air Station.
This marks the first time a B-1B has landed north of the Arctic Circle.
The bomber is one of four temporarily based in Norway, where it's exercising with NATO and Swedish air forces.
A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber made history last week when it landed at a remote air base north of the Arctic Circle. The bomber, flying with an escort of four Swedish Gripen fighters, touched down at Norway's Bodø Air Station for refueling before departing again. The layover marked the farthest north the B-1B has ever operated.
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The bomber, nicknamed "Dark Knight" of the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing, conducted a "warm pit refuel" at Bodø, a process that allows the crew to remain in the cockpit as the plane is gassed up, according to Stars and Stripes. Warm pit refueling minimizes the time an aircraft spends on the ground, allowing it to quickly take off again.
Bodø, a Royal Norwegian Air Force base, is NATO's northernmost air base. Norwegian F-16 Fighting Falcons of 132 Luftving (Air Wing) are parked at the western edge of the base 24/7 to respond to potential threats to Norwegian airspace, primarily from warplanes from neighboring Russia.
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Dark Knight is one of four B-1Bs currently based in Europe as part of the semi-regular Bomber Task Force Europe rotation. This latest deployment, nicknamed "Arctic Bone," is the first to Norway, with the bombers based at Ørland Air Station. ("Bone," a.k.a. "B-One," is one of many nicknames for the B-1.)
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Air Force Global Strike Command typically rotates a handful of bombers to Europe and Asia for 1- to 2-month deployments several times a year. A similar deployment to the U.S. territory of Guam started in late January as four B-52H Stratofortress bombers landed at Andersen Air Force Base on January 26.
Global Strike Command manages a force of 76 B-52 bombers, 20 B-2 Spirit bombers, and 62 B-1B Lancer bombers. The Air Force is reducing its inventory of B-1Bs to 45 to maintain readiness levels until the new B-21 Raider enters service in the mid-to-late 2020s.
Dark Knight trained with U.S. special operations forces and assisted in Norwegian and Swedish joint terminal attack control (JTAC) training, in which air force personnel specialize in calling in air support for ground forces, according to U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa. The B-1B fleet has extensive experience in supporting ground forces over Afghanistan, and in any future conflict, the bombers would likely juggle the widely disparate roles of long range missile carrier and close air support bomber.
Badass.
Dark Knight showing Sniper targeting pod--and Batman nose art.
Dark Knight is equipped with a Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod, an electro-optical sensor pod capable of detecting and tracking both air and ground targets, providing two-way full motion video via datalink, and marking targets on the ground with a laser designator. Sniper would allow Dark Knight's crew to detect targets marked by JTACs with lasers, providing precision bombing support to ground forces.
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The B-1B bomber is one of the Air Force's three heavy bomber airframes. (The other two are the B-52 and the B-2.) Originally designed as a nuclear bomber, the B-1B was stripped of the nuclear mission and is now strictly a conventionally armed bomber.
The B-1B can carry a variety of munitions, including the satellite-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), Paveway family of laser-guided bombs, and the AGM-158 Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM).
Although last week's landing was a first for the B-1B, U.S. bombers frequently operated north of the Arctic Circle during the Cold War. For example, Air Force B-36 and B-47 bombers, the Bone's predecessors, flew out of Thule Air Base on the island of Greenland in the 1950s and 60s.
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Kyle Mizokami
Writer on Defense and Security issues, lives in San Francisco.
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