U.S. Marine Corps F-35Bs armed with live AIM-9X air-to-air missiles, escorted the B-52s during a bomber attack demonstration mission earlier this week.

U.S. Air Forces Southern has just released a new set of photographs showing U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II jets escorting a pair of B-52H Stratofortress bombers during a long-range mission off the coast of Venezuela on Oct. 15, 2025 .

According to publicly available flight tracking data, three B-52s from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, flying as BUNNY 01, BUNNY 02 and BUNNY 03, operated for hours within the Maiquetía Flight Information Region, off Venezuela’s northern coastline, before returning north.

The images confirm that at least two bombers were escorted by Marine F-35Bs operating from the former Roosevelt Roads Naval

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