Two U.S. B-52s of Bomber Task Force 20-4 Fly Mission In Moroccan Airspace Before Landing at Spanish Airbase

September 8, 2020 Military Aviation
David Cenciotti
B-52 #61-0034 landing at Moron AB on Sept. 7, 2020. (All images: David Parody)

The Stratofortresses deployed to RAF Fairford, UK, have flown a training mission over Northwestern Africa.

On Sept. 7, 2020, two U.S. B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers, belonging to the 5th Bomb Wing, from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, deployed to Europe as part of BTF 20-4, carried out a mission to Morocco.

Flying as “BUSH11” and “BUSH12” (reg. 60-0005 and 61-0034), the two BUFFs took off from RAF Fairford, UK, a few minutes before 11.30LT.

With the Mode-S transponder turned on, they immediately started plotting on flight tracking websites and their route appeared to bring them towards southwestern Europe.

The aircraft operated for some time inside the Moroccan airspace, most probably integrating, as done in April 2019, with the local RMAF (Royal Moroccan Air Force) F-16s.

Here’s a cool video released last year:

After completing their activity over North Africa, the two BUFFs point towards Spain, where they landed around 4 hours after takeoff.

Photographer and The Aviationist contributor David Parody was at Moron Air Base, in southern Spain, one of the European airfields used as Forward Operating Base for the Stratofortress bombers, and took the photos of the two B-52Hs landing there that you can find in this post.

Flying as BUSH11 and 12 two B-52s landed at Moron AB in Spain after flying in Moroccan airspace on Sept. 7, 2020.
B-52H 60-0005 on short final.
#61-0034 overhead Moron AB before landing.

The two BUFFs are scheduled to return to RAF Fairford, today, Sept. 8, 2020.

This B-52 model is available from AirModels. Click here to buy yours.



About David Cenciotti
WebsiteFacebookTwitterLinkedIn instagram
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.

Related Articles