Posted on 02/22/2008 7:24:28 PM PST by AzSteven
News just coming out (at least I could not find another report here)
http://www.kuam.com/news/26596.aspx
See Post 158 for possible explanation.
Oh yeah, monitor lizards, boonie pigs, there are even deer on the island.
Brown tree snakes. They kill everything and have no natural predator. Word is if any of these ever make it to the USA they’d create havoc.
I lived at Andersen South housing before the Air Force abandoned it and turned it over to the marines for urban combat training. Nice waste of a good housing section.
They spelled it wrong. It’s Ander”sen”, not Ander”son”
With Russia starting to beef up it’s military again and rumored to be pulling out of it’s treaties with the USA, I think it’s time to start pulling these babies out of mothballs and getting them back in service.
I hear you. While I still cant believe that one of our B2’s fell out of the sky, I get it that the B-52 is a very effective machine, and I think that its performance capability's are much greater than we know.
For some reason I have always found aircraft-aviation to be very romantic. So if it ever gets down to it, let me go up in the F-105, or maybe the ww2 FW-190 with American colors on it.
“This is the second airforce incident in as many days. I wonder whats going on, first the f-15s and now this. Very strange.”
There was an article in the local paper last week where the Airfarce err force was whining about needing more money because their planes are old and need replacing.
IIRC they are asking somthing like 20 to 50 billion a year for the next 4 to 5 years to recapitalize their fleet.
Funny how airplane maintenance wasn’t such a high priority when the Airforce was wasting millions on developing new “Airman Battle Uniforms” and paying full BAQ for those who live in Army barracks.
Lets not forget how the Airforce is beholden to the criminal enterprise known as Lockheed Martin that seeks to bilk taxpayers out of billions of dollars through “cost plus” contracts.
“The Congress is nickel and dimeing the air force to the point they wont be able to perform their mission to defend this country.
just when we are staring to see a lot of very bad actors throwing tantrums at us.”
Thats the whole point, congress is pulling an end run on our military.
The treasoncrats know it would be political suicide to outright cut the funding for the war on terror so they are doing it through the back door by cutting the operations and maintenance budgets.
In other words the treasoncrats are playing chicken with the Pentagon and the administration and our troops are stuck in the middle
Isnt that the 2nd one that has crashed since they were in service ?
No, it’s the only B2 thats ever been lost.
The F-117 stealth fighter on the otherhand had at least 7 lost including the one shot down over Bosnia.
“I wonder how much it would cost to re-open a line to make an updated B-52. It coudnt cost that much, if you bought them in quantity. Its old tech, after all. Keep the airframe the same, add modern avionics and engines.”
That’s assuming the Airforce gets a spine and tells Lockheed Martin and Boeing where they can shove the cost plus contracts and actually start holding these contractors responsible for their actions.
Other than that, the Airforce won’t do it because the B-52 isn’t “flashy” enough.
Interesting history. Even more interesting they were heading home after a deployment an not on a combat mission.
Since the crew got out and seems to be OK, I can bemoan the loss of 5% of the operational fleet of B-2s. (There *were* 21, with one of those being strictly a test aircraft).
And they ain't building any more any time soon. Read that as Probably Never.
B-2 has Four General Electric F118-GE-100 engines, 17,300 lbs thrust each. Non-after burning version of F101 used on B-1. Also same core as F110, which powers about 85% of the F-16s.
Don't think we know that yet, but structural spares are hard to come by and there are no B-2s in the boneyard.
It's not likely to fall into enemy hands sitting on the tarmac on Anderson AFB, Guam, US territory.
Don't know about any destruct package, and wouldn't say if I did. :0
The B-2 Air Force Fact Sheet says they built 21, but one is a test aircraft. It's most probably at Edwards AFB.
But if we confirmed that information, then yes, we'd have to shoot you. ;).
I think that's an -H model. None of those in the bone yard, AFAIK. However about 1/3 of the B-1s are in the bone yard, pull a couple of those, assuming they haven't all been too cannibalized for parts, to replace the lost stealth.
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