U.S. B-52 Stratofortress bombers join NATO Cobra Warrior 2025 to boost allied airpower in Europe
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On September 11, 2025, B-52 Stratofortress bombers from the US Air Force’s 307th Bomb Wing in Louisiana landed at the Fairford base in England to join Cobra Warrior 2025, known as CW 25-2. This exercise is organized by the Royal Air Force and takes place twice every year, bringing together aircraft and crews from NATO members and partner nations. It has been running in its current format since 2019 and is designed to test how forces would operate in demanding conditions such as limited communications, contested airspace, and restricted resources. For this year’s edition, training is being spread across several air bases in England, making it one of the largest multinational air drills hosted by the United Kingdom.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
Open-source reporting around the start of the exercise noted two B-52s arriving at Fairford on September 11, 2025, under the callsigns SCALP93 and SCALP94, and observed that B-52 deployments to Fairford occur regularly for a range of missions. (Picture source: 307th Bomb Wing)
The Cobra Warrior 2025 exercise is designed to allow participating aircrews and support elements to train in joint mission planning, integration across multiple aircraft types, and tactical skills in coalition environments. CW 25-2 also serves as the summative event for several United Kingdom Qualified Weapons Instructor courses, making it both a multinational training exercise and a formal certification process for advanced RAF leaders. Exercises are structured to replicate operational conditions under peer-adversary environments, incorporating degraded communications, electronic interference, and limited resources. The scope emphasizes not just flying operations but also command and control, logistics, and leadership under realistic scenarios intended to reflect combat conditions. This exercise also aims to refine tactics, techniques, and procedures relevant to potential near-peer engagements and to reinforce common standards for coalition operations.
Earlier editions of Cobra Warrior illustrate how the series has expanded in scale and complexity since the RAF formally established it in 2019. Cobra Warrior 23-1, held in March 2023, involved around 70 aircraft from multiple nations, including India with Mirage 2000s, Belgium with F-16s, Finland with F-18s, and Saudi Arabia with Typhoons, alongside RAF and NATO aircraft. That iteration lasted about three weeks and included missions spanning offensive counter-air, defensive counter-air, interdiction, and suppression of enemy air defences, supported by tankers and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms. Cobra Warrior 23-2 in September 2023 brought more than 50 aircraft from six allied countries, testing day and night operations under peer-adversary conditions. Subsequent exercises, such as Cobra Warrior 24-2 in autumn 2024, included nearly 80 aircraft and expanded mission sets, with fast jets, low-level flying, refueling, transport, and reconnaissance, showing how the exercise continues to integrate additional domains and increase allied participation over time.
For the 307th Bomb Wing, this deployment marks its second participation in a Cobra Warrior iteration since 2019 and supports the unit’s stated objective to improve interoperability with NATO and allied partners. Wing leadership frames the mission in terms of executing complex multi-domain operations, gaining high-tempo experience away from home station, and ensuring that allies gain routine exposure to heavy bomber integration. The schedule at Fairford places U.S. heavy bombers alongside allied assets in large-force scenarios that test planning, leadership, and execution under pressure. The wing’s participation therefore links its reserve role to practical coalition readiness objectives in Europe.
The B-52 Stratofortress itself remains a central element of U.S. participation. First flown in 1952 and introduced in 1955, the aircraft is a long-range subsonic jet-powered strategic bomber produced by Boeing, with 744 built and 76 still in service as of 2024. It can carry up to 32,000 kilograms of weapons, has a combat range of 14,200 kilometers without aerial refueling, and remains in service due to successive upgrades to avionics, radar, and weapons systems. The 307th Bomb Wing maintains B-52H models, with roles spanning nuclear enterprise responsibilities, global strike missions, and conventional operations. For Cobra Warrior 2025, their use provides allies with direct integration experience of heavy bomber platforms in coalition mission planning and execution.
The 307th Bomb Wing itself has a long and varied history. First activated in 1947, the wing has served in different roles including combat operations in Korea, where it earned a Presidential Unit Citation, and later management of Strategic Air Command tankers and bombers during the Vietnam War. It was inactivated in 1975 and reactivated in 2011, when it absorbed B-52 Stratofortress aircraft at Barksdale following the restructuring of the 917th Wing. It is assigned to the Tenth Air Force under Air Force Reserve Command, and if mobilized, is gained by Air Force Global Strike Command. The wing today maintains 20 B-52H Stratofortress aircraft, operates several squadrons including the 93rd and 343rd Bomb Squadrons, and also maintains a classic association with Dyess Air Force Base operating the B-1B Lancer through the 489th Bomb Group.
Cobra Warrior 2025 scenarios also integrate wider allied and partner participation beyond U.S. bomber forces. Canadian contributions include CF-188 Hornet fighters and CC-130J Hercules transport aircraft, while three Royal Canadian Air Force pilots are undergoing Mission Commander training, which requires planning, commanding, and debriefing complex multinational missions. Italian Eurofighter Typhoons supported by a G550 CAEW, German Typhoons from the 74th Tactical Air Wing, and multiple RAF aircraft, including Voyagers and Atlas transports, are also part of the exercise. Ground security elements such as the RAF Regiment are engaged, and observer nations like Saudi Arabia have been noted at recent iterations. Training aims to replicate composite air operations with multinational aircraft packages, joint planning, and contested operational conditions, ensuring that participating nations refine both their interoperability and readiness for high-intensity coalition missions.
Written by Jérôme Brahy
Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.
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On September 11, 2025, B-52 Stratofortress bombers from the US Air Force’s 307th Bomb Wing in Louisiana landed at the Fairford base in England to join Cobra Warrior 2025, known as CW 25-2. This exercise is organized by the Royal Air Force and takes place twice every year, bringing together aircraft and crews from NATO members and partner nations. It has been running in its current format since 2019 and is designed to test how forces would operate in demanding conditions such as limited communications, contested airspace, and restricted resources. For this year’s edition, training is being spread across several air bases in England, making it one of the largest multinational air drills hosted by the United Kingdom.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
Open-source reporting around the start of the exercise noted two B-52s arriving at Fairford on September 11, 2025, under the callsigns SCALP93 and SCALP94, and observed that B-52 deployments to Fairford occur regularly for a range of missions. (Picture source: 307th Bomb Wing)
The Cobra Warrior 2025 exercise is designed to allow participating aircrews and support elements to train in joint mission planning, integration across multiple aircraft types, and tactical skills in coalition environments. CW 25-2 also serves as the summative event for several United Kingdom Qualified Weapons Instructor courses, making it both a multinational training exercise and a formal certification process for advanced RAF leaders. Exercises are structured to replicate operational conditions under peer-adversary environments, incorporating degraded communications, electronic interference, and limited resources. The scope emphasizes not just flying operations but also command and control, logistics, and leadership under realistic scenarios intended to reflect combat conditions. This exercise also aims to refine tactics, techniques, and procedures relevant to potential near-peer engagements and to reinforce common standards for coalition operations.
Earlier editions of Cobra Warrior illustrate how the series has expanded in scale and complexity since the RAF formally established it in 2019. Cobra Warrior 23-1, held in March 2023, involved around 70 aircraft from multiple nations, including India with Mirage 2000s, Belgium with F-16s, Finland with F-18s, and Saudi Arabia with Typhoons, alongside RAF and NATO aircraft. That iteration lasted about three weeks and included missions spanning offensive counter-air, defensive counter-air, interdiction, and suppression of enemy air defences, supported by tankers and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms. Cobra Warrior 23-2 in September 2023 brought more than 50 aircraft from six allied countries, testing day and night operations under peer-adversary conditions. Subsequent exercises, such as Cobra Warrior 24-2 in autumn 2024, included nearly 80 aircraft and expanded mission sets, with fast jets, low-level flying, refueling, transport, and reconnaissance, showing how the exercise continues to integrate additional domains and increase allied participation over time.
For the 307th Bomb Wing, this deployment marks its second participation in a Cobra Warrior iteration since 2019 and supports the unit’s stated objective to improve interoperability with NATO and allied partners. Wing leadership frames the mission in terms of executing complex multi-domain operations, gaining high-tempo experience away from home station, and ensuring that allies gain routine exposure to heavy bomber integration. The schedule at Fairford places U.S. heavy bombers alongside allied assets in large-force scenarios that test planning, leadership, and execution under pressure. The wing’s participation therefore links its reserve role to practical coalition readiness objectives in Europe.
The B-52 Stratofortress itself remains a central element of U.S. participation. First flown in 1952 and introduced in 1955, the aircraft is a long-range subsonic jet-powered strategic bomber produced by Boeing, with 744 built and 76 still in service as of 2024. It can carry up to 32,000 kilograms of weapons, has a combat range of 14,200 kilometers without aerial refueling, and remains in service due to successive upgrades to avionics, radar, and weapons systems. The 307th Bomb Wing maintains B-52H models, with roles spanning nuclear enterprise responsibilities, global strike missions, and conventional operations. For Cobra Warrior 2025, their use provides allies with direct integration experience of heavy bomber platforms in coalition mission planning and execution.
The 307th Bomb Wing itself has a long and varied history. First activated in 1947, the wing has served in different roles including combat operations in Korea, where it earned a Presidential Unit Citation, and later management of Strategic Air Command tankers and bombers during the Vietnam War. It was inactivated in 1975 and reactivated in 2011, when it absorbed B-52 Stratofortress aircraft at Barksdale following the restructuring of the 917th Wing. It is assigned to the Tenth Air Force under Air Force Reserve Command, and if mobilized, is gained by Air Force Global Strike Command. The wing today maintains 20 B-52H Stratofortress aircraft, operates several squadrons including the 93rd and 343rd Bomb Squadrons, and also maintains a classic association with Dyess Air Force Base operating the B-1B Lancer through the 489th Bomb Group.
Cobra Warrior 2025 scenarios also integrate wider allied and partner participation beyond U.S. bomber forces. Canadian contributions include CF-188 Hornet fighters and CC-130J Hercules transport aircraft, while three Royal Canadian Air Force pilots are undergoing Mission Commander training, which requires planning, commanding, and debriefing complex multinational missions. Italian Eurofighter Typhoons supported by a G550 CAEW, German Typhoons from the 74th Tactical Air Wing, and multiple RAF aircraft, including Voyagers and Atlas transports, are also part of the exercise. Ground security elements such as the RAF Regiment are engaged, and observer nations like Saudi Arabia have been noted at recent iterations. Training aims to replicate composite air operations with multinational aircraft packages, joint planning, and contested operational conditions, ensuring that participating nations refine both their interoperability and readiness for high-intensity coalition missions.
Written by Jérôme Brahy
Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.
