While this site sat at 3, you know they had to be at DEFCON 2 with the entire B-2 fleet and Russias nuclear bombers trying to pass each other over the attic.
DEFCON One is nuclear missiles flying and Bombers flying to their targets like that has to be 2. I could see if they were just having a Johnson waving contest by flying B-52s around at their control points but our B-2 fleet doesn’t do that, they pretty much go straight to the target around known radar stations that is.
They were more than likely carrying mostly conventional weapons because Obama was told we can sneak out bombers over Kaliningrad and destroy those mobile nuclear missiles on the ground to teach Putin a lesson, without thinking about the huge dam elephant in the room.
The fact that our premier bomber fleet was likely going to be in the air, near Russia without nuclear weapons or near enough, if Putin responded with a massive nuclear retaliation.
We could have been at 3 but only due to Democrat ineptitude and some very inexperienced Generals.