Overview
- The 509th Bomb Wing scrubbed the planned Rose Parade flyover due to a low cloud ceiling during the event’s first rain in 20 years, officials said.
- Air Force planners shifted the Rose Bowl window from pregame to halftime, and the B-2 ultimately completed the stadium flyover in the afternoon.
- The annual mission launches from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on a three- to three-and-a-half-hour flight of more than 1,600 miles.
- Two B-2s are typically used—one primary and an airborne spare—with timing choreographed to anthem cues and coordinated to the second.
- This year marked Col. Joshua D. Wiitala’s first Rose flyovers as wing commander after a high-tempo year that included a major June strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, and follows a 2023 safety pause that grounded the fleet.