Old methods for new messages. Two US B-1 bombers took off from a South Dakota airport to fly to the Aegean Sea. In the final part of the exercise, two F-16 fighters departed from Aviano flanked and escorted them, while six other planes from the Friulian base remained in the rear on the Adriatic. After all, it might appear like a routine operation, but this “high visibility mission” – as the command of the US forces in Europe defined it – sends a clear political signal: the presidency Joe Biden intends to play a role in the Mediterranean again.
Not surprisingly, the pair of bombers flew over the most turbulent area of the Mediterranean, the scenario of the Turkish attempt to redefine the maritime borders to grab the exploitation of hydrocarbon fields. And if in the years of Donald Trump in the White House the Americans had limited themselves to verbal protests against the claims of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now the situation is changing. Although Ankara remains firmly in NATO structures, participating in all Alliance activities, Washington’s pressure on the Turkish authorities has steadily increased in recent months.
The two heavyweights of the skies – each can carry up to 84 bombs or about twenty surface-to-air missiles – showed up in the Aegean just as a great wargame of nations that opposed the designs of the new Sultan began. For the Iniochos 2021 exercise, French, Israeli, Emirati and Spanish aircraft have deployed in Greece.
Until now, the trips of the B-1 Lancers in the Mediterranean had been limited to mobilizing against Islamist terrorism: bombers have often intervened in the past to hit ISIS bases in Syria and Iraq, using precision bombs. This time the message is different. “The US commitment to NATO remains armored – commented General Lance Landrum – The bomber mission is one of the many examples of how the United States maintains preparedness, increases operations and demonstrates the ability to carry out its tasks through the Atlantic “. “Starting from the Midwest – underlines the communiqué of the US command – this mission in the Aegean has shown to the allies how America is determined in protecting European security”.
At the time of the Cold War, this type of military initiative was called: “Display determination”. A show of strength, to show that we are ready to intervene quickly in the hottest areas. In the case of the flight of the B-1s in the Aegean, it is unusual to note how it happened just as Erdogan’s rudeness against the president of the EU Commission was staged in Ankara Ursula Von der Leyen.
.