Bomber Mission 49 - BUFFs go to Play in the Sandpit #FreeIran

Pair of B-52H bombers launched from RAF Fairford for Operation Epic Fury, with refueling possibly occurring over the CENTCOM area.

Retweeted by @hey_itsmyturn from @DefenceGeek:

Bomber Mission 49 - BUFFs go to Play in the Sandpit #FreeIran‌
--- Operation EPIC FURY ---

After launching B-1s yesterday morning (31st March 2026), RAF Fairford (EGVA) then also launched a pair of B-52H "Stratofortress" bombers for #OperationEpicFury. Once again with these bombers, we've not identified aerial refuelling taking place over Europe or the Mediterranean, and a recent photo from @CENTCOM suggests that the B-52s may in fact be refuelling over Saudi Arabia or other parts of the CENTCOM area only now - we're working to confirm that. So for now, here's the bombers that flew yesterday:

Mission XLIX
B-52H "PLAY54" 61-0035 #AE58AF "Witches Brew"
B-52H "PLAY55" 61-0020 #AE58A9 "The Big Stick"

Moving forward, I'm also going to scrap using roman numerals for the mission numbers because I know folks (including myself) find it more confusing the higher up the numbers we go!