This recently shot high-definition footage features US military aircraft operating from Anderson Air Force Base (AFB) on Guam in the Marianas during Valiant Shield joint training exercises. The footage is mostly takeoffs and departures, but it’s the variety of aircraft seen in the clip that makes it so awesome. The video was uploaded to YouTube by Ultimate Military Channel. The routine and the rare cataloged below the clip.
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The video starts off with a section of Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning IIs from VMFA-121 Green Knights departing. Then a Boeing E-3 AWACS from the 552nd Air Control Wing (ACW) at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma gets moving. Next up a pair of Boeing P-8A Poseidons from VP-5 Mad Foxes depart. A US Marine Corps Lockheed KC-130J Hercules tanker splits next. Boeing B-52H Stratofortress serial 60-0021 nicknamed Black Jack and assigned to the 96th Bomb Squadron (BS) Devil’s Own at Barksdale AFB is next to head out with Mark 62 Quickstrike mines on its racks.
A Boeing (Northrop Grumman) E-8C JSTARS from the 461st ACW in Georgia gets going next. Then another Poseidon, this one from VP-30 Pro’s Nest (all the way from Jax) takes to the skies. Now it’s time to turn those speakers way up, because the footage of the next several departures was shot from the rear quarter- meaning thunder! Carrier Air Wing FIVE (CVW-5) Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornets from VFA-195 Dambusters and VFA-115 Eagles, F/A-18F Super Hornets from VFA-102 Diamondbacks, and EA-18G Growlers from VAQ-141 Shadowhawks all make some sweet freedom noises.
Oddity warning: The next departure is an Omega Tanker Boeing 707-368C (registered as N707MQ) contract aerial tanker. Then a Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker from the 909th ARS fitted with a drogue on its boom takes off. Finally we see some camera-shy McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagles from the 18th Wing at Kadena depart. Look closely and you’ll observe some interesting aircraft on the ground in the background as well. Lockheed EP-3E Aries II electronic reconnaissance Orions from VQ-2 World Watchers, various KC-135Rs and KC-10A Extenders, and B-1B Lancers from Dyess AFB are all on the vast Andersen AFB ramps. Did you spot the Hawker Hunter Mk. 58 contract adversary jet or the one and only Japanese Kawasaki UP-3C Orion on the entire planet there too?
The second video from this exercise features some of the same footage pre-flight but adds BB stackers loading those Mark 62s up and later the release and detonation of the B-52H’s payload as observed from a VP-5 Poseidon. Enjoy!
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