{"id":56212,"date":"2024-06-14T21:20:49","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T19:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=56212"},"modified":"2024-06-20T20:57:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T18:57:38","slug":"the-flight-of-spanish-ef-18-and-harrier-ii-fighters-with-a-b-52-bomber-over-the-baltic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/06\/14\/the-flight-of-spanish-ef-18-and-harrier-ii-fighters-with-a-b-52-bomber-over-the-baltic\/","title":{"rendered":"The flight of Spanish EF-18 and Harrier II fighters with a B-52 bomber over the Baltic"},"content":{"rendered":"

NATO's Baltops 24 exercise, which takes place from June 7 to 20 in the waters of the Baltic Sea, is leaving spectacular images.<\/p>\n

Fighters from Spain and other allied countries escort B-52 bombers over Europe<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe Spanish Navy together with the US Marines in the BALTOPS 24 exercise in Latvia<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

Some of them have been published today by the DVIDShub.net portal of the US Armed Forces. This is a series of four photos taken by Corporal Elton Taylor<\/a> of the US Marine Corps, probably from the rear ramp of an MV-22B Osprey converter plane from VMM-365 \"Blue Knights\". You can see these photos enlarged by clicking on them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In these photos we see a formation of 11 planes from four different countries: Spain, the United States, Sweden and Turkey<\/strong>. In the center of the formation we see one of the strategic bombers B-52H of the 69th Expeditionary Bombardment Squadron \"Knighthawks\"<\/strong>, based at Minot AFB, North Dakota, which is participating in the Bomber deployment Task Force (BTF) Europe 24-3. 11 days ago we saw here one of these B-52H flying alongside Spanish EF-18M fighters<\/a> from the 12th Wing that are deployed in the Vilkas Detachment in \u0160iauliai, Lithuania, on a Baltic Air Policing (BAP) mission of NATO.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Flying behind the B-52H we see two EAV-8B+ Harrier II Plus fighters from the 9th Squadron of the Spanish Navy<\/strong>, which are currently deployed with the aircraft carrier \"Juan Carlos I\" L-61 in that area, as we already saw here this Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Flying next to the starboard wing of the B-52H we see two EF-18M fighters from the 12th Wing of the Air Force<\/strong>, deployed in the area in the aforementioned Vilkas Detachment. Next to the port wing of the B-52H we can see two other Harrier II fighters from the United States Marine Corps<\/strong>. They are deployed in that area aboard the amphibious aircraft carrier USS Wasp (LHD 1). They are distinguished from the Spanish Harrier II because they have a lighter gray decoration.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

NATO Naval Strike and Support Forces (STRIKFORNATO)<\/strong> have published three more photos of this formation<\/a>, without citing the authorship, although they show the rear ramp of an MV-22B Osprey, so they have surely also been supplied by the Marines.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In these images we also see the fighters that complete this formation. Flying on the port side of the B-52H, at the end, are two Swedish Air Force JAC-39C Gripen fighters<\/strong>. It is the first time that this Nordic country participates in a NATO Baltops exercise since its entry into the Atlantic Alliance on March 7, 2024.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, flying at the other end of the formation, on the starboard side of the B-52H, we see two Turkish Air Force F-16C fighters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, yesterday STRIKFORNATO published four more photos<\/a> that you can see below.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Two of the photos in this series show a Spanish EF-18M fighter from the 12th Wing, the C.15-70 (12-28)<\/strong>, during this NATO exercise in the Baltic.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In the first of these photos we see an AV-8B(R) Harrier II Plus fighter from VMM-365 \"Blue Knights\" of the US Marines<\/strong>, specifically 165425 (with the number 52 on the nose ). On its ventral support it carries an AN\/AAQ-28V LITENING target designator.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, two AV-8B(R) Harrier II Plus fighters from the Marines<\/strong>. The one on the left is 165425 (52) that we saw in the previous photo. The one on the right is 166288 (55).<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NATO’s Baltops 24 exercise, which takes place from June 7 to 20 in the waters of the Baltic Sea, is leaving spectacular images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11546],"tags":[16093,2245,3546,22101,1104,1257,22102,1112,1111,8143,11875,10669,16206,22103,6761,673,7071],"class_list":["post-56212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-military-aviation","tag-69th-bomb-squadron-knighthawks","tag-9-escuadrilla","tag-ala-12","tag-baltops-24-exercise","tag-boeing-b-52-stratofortress","tag-general-dynamics-f-16-fighting-falcon","tag-marine-medium-tiltrotor-squadron-365-vmm-365","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-av-8b-harrier-ii","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-eav-8b-harrier-ii","tag-saab-jas-39-gripen","tag-spanish-air-force","tag-spanish-navy","tag-swedish-air-force","tag-turkish-air-force","tag-united-states-air-force-usaf","tag-us-marine-corps","tag-uss-wasp-lhd-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}