An Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber flew overhead as Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday met with President Donald Trump on a U.S. Air Force flightline in Alaska.
The stealth bomber, used for some of the most high-profile U.S. strikes in the Middle East this year, flew over Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson flanked by four F-35 fighter jets. On the ground, Putin and Trump met on the tarmac for a major summit to discuss the war in Ukraine, currently in its fourth year. The bomber was one of two B-2s sent to Alaska this week ahead of the summit.
Flight data showed two B-2s flying from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri to Alaska in the hours before the two leaders met.
The U.S. Air force operates 19 B-2 bombers, based out of Whiteman Air Force Base. Some are occasionally forward deployed to the Indo-Pacific, but they are capable of carrying out intercontinental strikes that begin and end at the Missouri base. Seven B-2s took part in Operation Midnight Hammer in June, dropping 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs, onto two of the three nuclear facilities in Iran targeted in the attack. The bombers crossed the Atlantic, dropped their munitions and returned to Whiteman.
Whiteman Air Force Base did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the flyover. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is also one of the installations hosting the Northern Edge 2025 exercise, a multi-domain training operation starting this week and centered around Alaska. B-2s have taken part in the biannual exercise in the past, although the flyover today does not appear to be a part of that.
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There is a long history of gamesmanship and jousting between U.S. and Russian aircraft around Alaska. U.S. fighter aircraft like the F-35 based at Elmendorf and Eielson Air Force base near Fairbanks patrol the skies around the northern state, in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone. They warned away Russian planes that enter that zone for decades, with the interactions increasing in recent years as Russia has upped its interest in the region.
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is home to the 3rd Wing, which flies F-22 fighter jets. Four of those jets were on the ground flanking the red carpet as Putin and Trump walked inside to have their meeting. The summit is ongoing.
