U.S. shows strength on the one-year anniversary of Sweden’s accession to NATO
While the U.S. was absent from the Paris meeting where 30 army chiefs from across the alliance met on Tuesday, two U.S. B-52 strategic bombers showed practical deterrence by conducting live weapons drop in northern Sweden.
It is not very often NATO’s army chiefs meet for top-level talks without the United States being present. That happened on Tuesday, in Paris. Without their U.S. counterparts, the alliance’s commanding generals discussed how to boost support to Ukraine’s defence against Moscow's aggression.
Questions are many as Donald Trump is casting doubt on willingness to defend European NATO allies. But amid turmoil from the White House on trans-Atlantic collective defense cooperation, the U.S. Armed Forces are busy with practical training in northernmost Europe.
On Tuesday March 11, two B-52 bombers flew together with several Swedish JAS 39 Gripen, flexing muscles, in a very visible strategic communication across the skies of NATO’s newest member state.
“The mission also included a low-formation flyover of the Swedish Parliament to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Sweden’s accession to NATO,” U.S. Air Force in Europe said in a statement.
It added: "These operations demonstrate the ability to rapidly deploy strategic assets in support of global stability."
While the public was focused on the giant American bombers over the roof tops in Stockholm, the actual military training happened much further north, later in the same day.
From the capital, the bombers and fighter jets continued to the Arctic Circle where live weapons drop with GBU-38 JDAM bombs took place at targets in the Vidsel Test Range. The range is the largest in Sweden and is located in the wilderness between Jokkmokk and Arjeplog.
Once released from the aircraft, the JDAM bombs autonomously navigated to the designated target coordinates inside the range.
Both of the two B-52s, numbered 60-0007 and 60-0044, are nuclear capable, according to the Nuclear Notebook 2025 published by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The planes, though, do not carry nuclear weapons on training flights in Europe.
The U.S. Air Force named the March 11 mission to northern Sweden VIKING NEBULA.
According to the statement, the bombs drop was the “first-ever live weapons drop” conducted by B-52s in Sweden. That, however, is not totally correct.
As the Barents Observer reported, two B-52s conducted live fire bombing towards targets in the same Vidsel Test Range first time in August 2022.
Last week, similar bomb drops took place over Rovajärvi shooting range in Finnish Lapland, a short 100 km from the border with Russia.
The air forces of Norway, Sweden and Finland have in recent years frequently trained with U.S. strategic bombers. B-1 bombers have for periods been deployed both at Kallax airbase near Luleå in northern Sweden and at Ørland airbase in Norway.
While Sweden builds their own figther jets, the Gripen-39, Norway and Finland operates American planes.
Norway has recently parked its fleet of F-16 fighter jets, of which some are transferred to Ukraine. New F-35 planes, 52 in total, are being phased in. Finland decided three years ago to buy 64 of the F-35, of which the first will be based at Rovaniemi Air Base in Lapland.
Including Denmark, the four countries will have a combined fleet of about 250 fighter jets. It is already decided to establish a joint NATO command centre for the Nordic fighter jets.
