Cool shot of a B-1 bomber departing the tanker like a boss during air strike on ISIS

A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer departs after refueling from a USAF KC-135 Stratotanker from the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron over Southwest Asia during a mission in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, July 23, 2015. OIR is the military intervention against Daesh. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Sandra Welch)

This is how you depart the tanker like a boss!

Taken on Jul. 23, during a mission in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, this cool shot shows a U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer (“Bone” for the pilots community), depart after refueling from a USAF KC-135 Stratotanker from the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron.

The bomber belongs to the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron deployed to Al Udeid, Qatar from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota.

The actual location where the picture was taken has not been disclosed but most tanker tracks are located over Iraq.

The B-1 have taken part in the air strikes on IS since the beginning of the air campaign: according to a story published by the AFP news agency earlier this year, in the previous 6 months, the U.S. Air Force Lancers had accounted for 18 percent of all the strike missions against the ISIS and for 43 percent of the total tonnage of munitions dropped in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

 

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.