The six B-52s will be joined by a total of 300 airman from Barksdale AFB in Louisiana to support the half century old bombers while forward deployed to the Pacific for the foreseeable future. The B-52s are intended to relieve the B-1Bs that have taken on a starring role in the standoff with North Korea. The B-52s will begin to fulfill the continuous bomber presence mission towards the end of the month when their B-1Bs counterparts return to South Dakota. In the meantime, all three bomber types will likely fly training missions around the region, and they could even end up executing a big cooperative show of force near North Korean borders.