Zain Malik
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A B-52H arrives at Al-Ubeid on 9 April. Source: USAF
United States Air Force (USAF) Boeing B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers arrived in Qatar on 9 April to join the air campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.
The US military released photographs and video footage of two B-52Hs arriving at Al-Udeid Airbase after flying directly from their home base in Louisiana.
The USAF said the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron has been stood up to run the B-52H deployment, with the crews and aircraft drawn from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barskdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
This is the first time the USAF has forward-based B-52Hs in the Middle East since the 1991 Gulf War, when a wing of the bombers operated from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
The deployment of the B-52Hs is intended to fill a gap in US airpower in the region caused by the temporary withdrawal of USAF Rockwell B-1B Lancers from Al-Udeid in January to allow for a systems upgrade.
The USAF did not confirm the total number of B1-Bs based in the Middle East or the length of the deployment, but Google Earth imagery of Al-Udeid from 2006 to 2015 suggested that five or six B-1Bs are routinely deployed there.
"The B-52 will provide the coalition with continued precision and deliver desired airpower effects," said Lieutenant General Charles Q Brown Jr, commander of US Air Forces Central Command and Combined Forces Air Component. "As a multirole platform, the B-52 offers diverse capabilities including delivery of precision weapons and the flexibility and endurance needed to support the combatant commanders' priorities and strengthen the coalition team. The B-52 demonstrates our continued resolve to apply persistent pressure on [the Islamic State] and defend the region in any future contingency."
