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US deploys 3 B-2 stealth bombers to Guam in message to North Korea
By Lucas Tomlinson
Published January 11, 2018
The U.S. Air Force announced it has deployed three nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers and 200 air personnel to Guam — sending a strong signal to North Korea just a few days after its talks with South Korea.
The B-2s join a number of B-1 conventional bombers already deployed on the Pacific island.
It is unclear how long the B-2s will stay at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.
“The bomber deployment is part of an ongoing planned deployment that affects not only the Korean Peninsula, but also a broader alliance structure in the Pacific,” said Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. about the decision to deploy the bombers to Guam — the delay of joint training with the South Koreans.
“You’d be wrong if you viewed a bomber deployment in a single lens of what it means to the Korean Peninsula. It affects allies across the Pacific,” he added.
“So when we begin to talk de-confliction of activities more directly related to the peninsula, there’s where you could see why we would have chosen to de-conflict and adjust the timing of some of those activities because of the Olympics and the Paralympics,” McKenzie said.
The Air Force last sent a lone B-2 bomber to Guam in October, but only for a few hours as part of a long-range training mission from its home base in Missouri.
The last time the U.S. sent three of the stealth bombers to Guam was January 2017.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/us-deploys-3-b-2-stealth-bombers-to-guam-in-message-to-north-korea