For The Second Time In Three Weeks B-1s Fly Over Poland Escorted by Polish F-16s. And Here Are Some Cool Shots.

Three F-16s escort one of the two B-1s over Poland on May 29. (Image credit: Polish MoD/Piotr Łysakowski).

Bones flew over Poland, Romania and Ukraine once again with Polish AF F-16 escort, today. Take a look at these splendid photos.

Two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancers, from the 28th Bomb Wing, flew over Poland for the second time in 18 days, as part of a long-range round trip mission from their homebase at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, on May 29, 2020.

The BONEs (as the Lancers are commonly dubbed – from B-One) have certainly become the most visible heavy bombers in the U.S. Air Force: as already reported, the supersonic bombers have been involved in multiple long-range missions around the world; widely advertised (and in some cases, trackable) global reach sorties that have seen the B-1s fly from their homebases in Continental US to both the Pacific region and, often, to northern Europe.

Last night, the Lancers, flying as “BONE 41” (originally launched as a 3-ship, with one B-1 probably acting as spare) were tracked along the way by means of their radio comms as well as the movements of their support tankers.

As happened last time (on May 11), the supersonic bombers were escorted by the Polish Air Force that dispatched two MiG-29 Fulcrum as well as four F-16C/D Block 52+ aircraft from Poznan Air Base, including one with a photographer, that took some incredible shots of the “package” flying over Poland on a pretty sunny day. Indeed, as commented by this Author in a previous article about the B-1 mission over Sweden: “For sure, along with the opportunity to train B-1s aircrews to carry out +30-hour sorties such missions also provide an opportunity to take some nice “group shots” like those included in this article.”

A two-seater and the BONE. (Image credit: Poland MoD/Piotr Łysakowski)
Group shot. (Image credit: Poland MoD/Piotr Łysakowski)

In May alone, the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, has carried out BTF (Bomber Task Force) Europe missions over the Baltic, Poland (twice) and the Nordic region. Not bad.

Group shot with two US B-1s, three Polish F-16s and two Polish MiG-29s. (Image credit: Poland MOD/Piotr Łysakowski

During the very same mission, the B-1s also integrated with Romanian fighters:

and also Ukrainian Air Force Su-27s and MiG-29s:



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.