by JOSEPH TREVITHICK
The United States and Russia are currently engaged in a prolonged battle of military theatrics. Both countries are spending time and money to train with their allies and show off fancy equipment … and they’re making damn sure each other can see it.
On April 1, American B-52 bombers trained with allies over the Arctic and the North Sea. Officially, the flights are just a training mission. Unofficially, they’re meant to show Moscow that Washington won’t back down from a fight.
The U.S. Air Force planned the training missions — nicknamed Polar Growl — for months, yet launched its planes shortly after the Kremlin wrapped up a massive war game in Russia’s frigid northern regions.
During the exercise, U.S. Air Force units at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota each sent two of the lumbering eight-engined bombers to the Arctic region and the North Sea, respectively.
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/russia-watched-as-american-bombers-showed-off-over-the-arctic-8302cebcc8ba
