Feuer Frei!
07-13-11, 09:20 AM
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2011/07/100224-F-6911G-503-660x402.jpg
It began with an email in late February. The message, sent by air planners at the Germany headquarters of U.S. Africa Command to the 608th Air and Space Operations Center located at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, jump-started a byzantine process of communication, planning and paperwork involving no fewer than 10 U.S. military headquarters scattered across the globe.
The goal? To fly a pair of 150-foot-long U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers, pictured, on a more than 12,000-mile round trip from their home base in South Dakota, over the Atlantic Ocean to Libya, where they would conduct two bombing runs each on Moammar Gadhafis forces.
If that seems like a lot of fuss over just two planes in an air campaign (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/what-you-thought-the-u-s-was-done-bombing-libya/) involving scores of jet fighters from a dozen NATO nations, consider this: the B-1 can carry more precision munitions (http://www.eglin.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123250570) than any other warplane except one. In a roughly four-day period involving 24 hours of combat time, those two B-1s and their combined eight crew members destroyed more than 100 Libyan targets. It would take dozens of NATO fighters to achieve the same effect.
The epic Libyan bombing run described in detail (http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2011/July%202011/0711libya.aspx) by Air Force Magazine illustrates why, even in this era of budget cuts, the Pentagon is determined to sustain its bomber fleet potentially into the 22nd century, by spending $40 billion or more on 100 new Next-Generation Bombers (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/new-stealth-bomber-could-control-drones-fire-lasers-bust-bunkers/). Stealth fighters are great (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/stealth-advantage/) (when theyre not grounded (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/stealth-fighter-fleet-grounded-by-oxygen-woes/), that is). But for taking out a bad guys ground forces and facilities, nothing beats a bomber.
But the gigantic warplanes certain have their drawbacks. They guzzle fuel like nobodys business. And being so few in number (http://www.warisboring.com/2008/04/04/bad-year-for-bombers/) Americas fleet of B-1s, B-2s and 1960s-era B-52s numbers just 160 military commands have to beg the Air Force to use them. Finally, flying halfway around the world to drop a few bombs, something only bombers can do, requires a mind-boggling bureaucratic process.
The flaming wreckage of more than 100 Libyan targets is testimony to the destructive prowess of Americas bombers. But these impressive warplanes would never leave the ground without bureaucrats and refuelers to support them.
SOURCE (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/two-bombers-24-hours-100-libyan-targets-destroyed-ready/)
It began with an email in late February. The message, sent by air planners at the Germany headquarters of U.S. Africa Command to the 608th Air and Space Operations Center located at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, jump-started a byzantine process of communication, planning and paperwork involving no fewer than 10 U.S. military headquarters scattered across the globe.
The goal? To fly a pair of 150-foot-long U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers, pictured, on a more than 12,000-mile round trip from their home base in South Dakota, over the Atlantic Ocean to Libya, where they would conduct two bombing runs each on Moammar Gadhafis forces.
If that seems like a lot of fuss over just two planes in an air campaign (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/what-you-thought-the-u-s-was-done-bombing-libya/) involving scores of jet fighters from a dozen NATO nations, consider this: the B-1 can carry more precision munitions (http://www.eglin.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123250570) than any other warplane except one. In a roughly four-day period involving 24 hours of combat time, those two B-1s and their combined eight crew members destroyed more than 100 Libyan targets. It would take dozens of NATO fighters to achieve the same effect.
The epic Libyan bombing run described in detail (http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2011/July%202011/0711libya.aspx) by Air Force Magazine illustrates why, even in this era of budget cuts, the Pentagon is determined to sustain its bomber fleet potentially into the 22nd century, by spending $40 billion or more on 100 new Next-Generation Bombers (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/new-stealth-bomber-could-control-drones-fire-lasers-bust-bunkers/). Stealth fighters are great (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/stealth-advantage/) (when theyre not grounded (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/stealth-fighter-fleet-grounded-by-oxygen-woes/), that is). But for taking out a bad guys ground forces and facilities, nothing beats a bomber.
But the gigantic warplanes certain have their drawbacks. They guzzle fuel like nobodys business. And being so few in number (http://www.warisboring.com/2008/04/04/bad-year-for-bombers/) Americas fleet of B-1s, B-2s and 1960s-era B-52s numbers just 160 military commands have to beg the Air Force to use them. Finally, flying halfway around the world to drop a few bombs, something only bombers can do, requires a mind-boggling bureaucratic process.
The flaming wreckage of more than 100 Libyan targets is testimony to the destructive prowess of Americas bombers. But these impressive warplanes would never leave the ground without bureaucrats and refuelers to support them.
SOURCE (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/two-bombers-24-hours-100-libyan-targets-destroyed-ready/)