Posted on 09/19/2013 6:12:55 AM PDT by artichokegrower
The U.S. Air Force proved this month that laser guided bombs can, in fact, hit moving targets at sea when dropped from supersonic bombers like the B-1B Lancer.
On Sept. 4, a B-1 from the 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron took off from Dyess Air Force Base bound for the Gulf of Mexico. Their goal was to better understand and improve their maritime strike capabilities while using a laser guided 500-pound bomb GBU-54, as well as 500 and 2,000-pound joint direct attack munitions.
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
Arm them. That is cheaper than sending our navy everywhere.
That is the problem with posting from Blogs. Besides the blogger’s title, no statement by the Air Force in the article says they are going to be used against pirates. It could just as easily be Iranian fast craft swarming a warship in the Persian Gulf.
By LGTs you mean the fastest ships in the Navy?
US flagged merchant ships are sovereign US territory. It’s why we got into WW1. My son is in the maritime industry. Blowing up Muslim Somali pirates is a fine use of taxpayer money.
Note that the body of the bomb in that pic is blue. Means that it’s inert, concrete filled rather than high explosives. Precision kinetic death on demand.
Compared to other options, that’s a pretty cheap kill. And less of a risk to the launch platform than cheaper kills (like straffing or unguided rockets) because the platform can stay close to, if not out of, the envelope of MANPADS.
I’m surprised that this hasn’t been tried earlier.
During Desert Storm it was “discovered” that the desert cooled faster than the metal hulls of Iraqi tanks, which could be easily distinguished by the PAVE TACKS mounted on F-111Fs
So each evening a bunch of Aardvarks would be loaded up with 500lb GBU-12s and sent off on “tank plinking” missions. Iirc the F-111F fleet ended the war with more tank kills than A-10s.
My favorite example of that phrase is the use of a Hellfire anti-tank missile on Ahmed Yassin's wheelchair in 2004. My guess is the Israelis did not want to take the chance his chair may have been "uparmored."
Yeah, but it doesn't assure that all the pirates are DEAD, which is what is needed. The rules on policing piracy in the past was that any military vessel who apprehended an act of piracy HUNG all the surviving pirates, on the spot. That is a policy that needs to be re-introduced.
And allow private vessels to arm themselves as used to be done.
I see a serious problem here. The Russians have not only developed very effective GPS jammers, but are gleefully distributing them to all sorts of villains who hope to avoid our GPS directed weaponry.
So what happens to one of these highly accurate bombs when it enters the GPS jamming bubble surrounding a ship at a respectable distance? Does it reduce its accuracy from 1 meter to 10 meters? 100 meters?
I remember that many years ago, the Russians demonstrated their anti-ballistic missile capability by using an ABM against a ballistic missile. They helped insure the shoot down by putting a homing beacon in the missile.
We weren’t *that* rude with this test, at least I hope, but assuming pretty much ideal conditions does not prove an effective weapons system.
Yeah, it might work against pirates; but in practical terms we don’t use weapons like this against pirates. We use them against enemy warships, that likely have jammers on board, if they know what is good for them.
Pirate Boats Can’t Hide From US Nuclear Subs
and Their Nuclear-Tipped Torpedoes
Some Freepers might want look at the pirates in a different light. The Taiwanese and Japanese have illegally fidhed out their waters. Shipping companies have long used their waters for illegally dumping waste. Their livelihoods have been destroyed and beaches vandalized by foreign shipping companies. I’d be a pirate too. Paybacks a bitc...
Wiki
For those types of boats all the Aiir Force really needs iOS a kinetic kill vehicle.A bomb casing loaded with concrete instead of explosives and a guidance kit to get the unit to hit the target.
When that kinetic kill unit hits that boat it will send it to the deep quick.
Beg to differ. Ain't the cost of the bullet that determines the total cost of the operation. Using the most expensive aircraft to throw spitballs, comparatively speaking, ain't the smartest thing to do. Wear and tear of engines and airframes of strategic weapons systems certainly not worth the effort of nailing pirates. Kind of like using Abrams tanks to chase and shoot up bank robbers.
Ending the piracy starts with oblitering their shore bases, their banking, links, their homes and families, their safe havens, and any one that trades with them. Kill them all. Make the piracy trade more dangerous to them than an Ebola epidemic or be prepared to see more turd worlders turn to piracy and hijacking. Right now the coastal Somali economy depends on these acts of piracy. And f*** their refugee status.
Better to use the B-1s to create a totally Somali-free zone 200 miles wide. That ain't going to happen, so we'll accept it as the cost of business til there's no longer any business.
The B-1s are actually a fairly cost-effective platform -total lifecycle wise. Part of this is that they were designed for the low-level penetration mission, which is significantly more stressful (wear and tear) than the mid to high profiles they’ve actually spent most of their lives flying.
What are the other options for really going after East African pirates? Carrier (CVN or LHA/LHD) fixed wing? Aegis cruisers/destroyers with guns and helos? LCSes with the same? Drones with Hellfires and LGBs? Anything else?
Seems that drones might be the only cheaper option than Bones (or B-52s) flying from Diego Garcia or Qatar. And assuming that they can operate from locations close enough to provide decent loiter time (since we’re talking armed Reapers and Predators and not Global Hawks ...)
And to add, even with a drone the concrete filled GBU is going to be cheaper than the Hellfire.
Wow! 37 posts to an article about pirates on “Talk Like a Pirate Day” and not one single “Aaarrrr!”
Amazing self-restraint shown by FReepers!
Sorry. Missed one.
Sorry, am saving up my pirate speak for getting free Krispy Kremes later today ...
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