Posted on 01/08/2020 6:59:09 PM PST by bitt
New satellite imagery, which The War Zone exclusively obtained from Planet Labs, shows two B-52s at the U.S. air base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, where they are out of the reach of Iranian missiles. These are the first of six of the bombers that the U.S. military is deploying to the remote base amid heightened tensions with Iran and now in the wake of unprecedented Iranian missile strikes targeting U.S. forces in Iraq.
The imagery in question is dated today, Jan. 8, 2019 at 11:09AM. The first reports that the U.S. Air Force was sending six B-52s to Diego Garcia on Jan. 6 and plane spotters using online flight tracking software noticed the first two aircraft heading out that same day. At the time of writing, there is no indication that any of the other four bombers have left the United States.
The imagery also shows a number of U.S. ships in the lagoon in the middle of the Island, which belong to one of two Prepositioning Ship Squadrons, part of Military Sealift Command's Maritime Prepositioning Force. These vessels are pre-loaded with various vehicles, weapons, ammunition, and other equipment and are in place in order to be able to help U.S. forces rapidly respond to a crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
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Let me know when the B2 shows up.
(That’s my favorite plane :-)
Still so amazing a version of B-52 has been flying since early ones shown in the 1957 movie Bombers B-52 with Karl Malden and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. And those excellent novels by Dale Brown beginning with Flight of the Old Dog (1987).
Outlived the Edsel, 8 track cartridges and several face lifts of Nancy Pelosi.
they would fly straight from Whiteman AFB
It would be pretty funny if they stenciled about 30 of them on the tarmac overnight.
I’ll take the B-2’s newer and brattier little brother, the B-21.
the b-52’s are window dressing. 6 b-52’s carry 20 tomahawks =120. 1 of the converted boomers, from nuke to conventional holds 120 by its self. thus the only real reason for the b-52 would be to deliver moab, daisy cutters or bunker busters after a take down of the entire defensive missile capability of Iran. That would be total war, not going to happen.
Never would have found them without the big red arrow.
I dont think the b 52 is moab ready yet
I’ve been at the Diego Garica area. It feels like you’re in the middle of nowhere. Miles and miles of nothing but water.
You are dependent on your Quartermasters at that point in time.
Loaded with bunker busters.
Khamenei is on the target list and he knows it.
The arrow is so big it’s insulting.
Golly gee, Wally. Have B-52s never flow to Diego Garcia in the past 10 years?
I don’t think B2’s ever touch ground outside of CONUS. Nellis used to have two but you seldom ever saw both there at once.
Not long ago I watched the 1956 film "Strategic Air Command" starring Jimmy Stewart June Allyson, directed by Anthony Mann. The film was made to inform Americans that the nascent Cold War was going to require us keep strategic bombers in the air around the clock forever. There was no going back to the sort of pre-WW II peacetime where the military greatly downsized after a major war.
From Wiki: Stewart plays Robert "Dutch" Holland, a professional baseball player with the St. Louis Cardinals. A B-29 bomber pilot during World War II, he is also an officer on inactive status in the United States Air Force Reserve. During spring training at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, he is recalled to active duty for 21 months. He reports to his posting at Carswell AFB, a bomber base in Fort Worth, Texas, to qualify in the Convair B-36. He arrives in civilian clothing because his old uniforms are those of the old U.S. Army Air Forces, for which he is rebuked by General Hawkes (Frank Lovejoy), the commander of SAC. The General's character is patterned after the real SAC commander of the time, General Curtis LeMay.Dutch is given a staff job with the bombardment wing at Carswell that involves a lot of flying. He soon has a B-36 crew of his own, selecting a former World War II colleague as his flight engineer, and becomes enamored with both flying and the role of SAC in deterring war. He is joined by his nagging wife, Sally (June Allyson), who had not bargained on being an Air Force wife, and who struggles with his repeated absences and the dangers of flying. On any given night, Dutch might find his aircraft on airborne alert far from the continental United States, in secret, only telling his wife when he returns days later. Even so, Sally tells Dutch that she is happy as long as they can be together, no matter what he decides to do with his life.
The B-36 is a complex aircraft when introduced, but improvements are being worked on all the time. One challenge was leakage from the fuel tanks, but a new fix is introduced to address this once and for all. On their next flight, Dutch's crew has to fly their B-36 from Carswell AFB to Thule Air Base, Greenland. The fix does not work and one of the engines bursts into flame, causing the entire left wing to catch fire. The crew is forced to abandon the aircraft and bail out over the ice and snow of Greenland before arriving at Thule. Dutch and his radar navigator stay on board for a forced landing, which causes Dutch to injure his right shoulder.
Dutch becomes a favorite of General Hawkes, and he is rewarded with a revised assignment flying the new Boeing B-47 Stratojet at MacDill AFB, Tampa, Florida, across the bay from St. Petersburg where his old baseball team continues to conduct its spring training. Promoted to "Full Bird" colonel and made deputy wing commander of his B-47 wing at MacDill AFB, Dutch decides, to Sally's displeasure, to remain in the Air Force.
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