Posted on 03/21/2011 12:19:12 PM PDT by Fennie
Six hero pilots return home safe and sound from a bombing mission to Libya which saw them in the cockpit for an incredible 25 hours.
Three B-2 Spirit bombers, piloted by two men each, made it back after the 11,418-mile round trip from the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri - where they are kept in special hangars - to Libya, where they hit targets on forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi and back again.
At $2.1bn, they are the most expensive warplanes in the world and rarely leave their climate-controlled hangars. But when it does, the B-2 bomber makes a spectacularly effective start to a war - including during this weekend's aerial attack on Libya's air defences.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Man that is above and beyond!!
A hero pilot would have refused the order. I mean, what is there about doing Al Quaeda’s dirty work for them that makes anybody a “hero(TM)”??
Post was okay as far as that goes....I was just ribbing you because the same thing has happened to me. It usually happens when my internet suddenly slows drastically and the application doesn’t catch up. Click the button - no response, click again - no response....eventually all those clicks seem to catch up.
The Chinese now have ballistic missiles that can target carriers on re-entry using seekers. Very deadly as the reports on the web go. There is likely a longer range version of this for those “special hangars” where these budget busters are housed. They will be dead before their engines rev up. I’m as patriotic as the next guy, but I’m also not an idiot to believe these are what we need for defense, either....20 at how many hundred billion apiece? 500 billion seems to stick in my mind. That’s damned near the national debt. Add to that all the special considerations and maintenance it needs (keep out of the rain, maintain quaternary control surface computers, etc. etc. etc. and you have one damned expensive aircraft just to drop a few bombs on some third world country at the outset of a Presidential whim....
Waco, Texas.
No problem.
It's the military.
Bladders probably weren't issued.
I kinda thought so!!
Have you ever had the experience that....after you've entered a post...then done a preview....then hit the "post" button, that you get sent to a "website not found" screen???
I've had that happen with disturbing frequency...only when using FR....?
Wonder what's up with that?? It's annoying as all get out.
Hero pilots?In WWII this would have been called the ultimate milk run.
These guys would be the first to agree. And being professionals, they'd add that any war plan that depended on heroics was drawn up by fools.
Agreed. We need to support our troops. All this bashing is getting tiresome. I don’t agree with the war we don’t have a vested economic or strategic interest in the area. Even so teeth nashing over our soldiers following orders is just insane. They wouldn’t be heroes if they had refused the mission they would be in a stockade.
Agreed.We have no business being in Kibya, We have no security interest justifying this attack.Our security interest was for Gadaffi to level Bengazi, it was the largest recruiting center for jihadis to go and fight in Iraq against US soldiers in Iraq.
Now we are saving Al Qaedas ass in Eastern Libya? WTF????
You bet they should have refused the mission, or they could have gone “oops” and leveled Bengazi.
Think about all those other air asset crews not exposed to danger? If you are an air planner it is a perfect use of the B-2 Spirits. That is what they train for. B-2s regularly conduct long range training missions from the US. Here in the UK the B-52s and B-2 are regular visitors on these long range missions to drop munitions on the North Sea weapons ranges.
This type of B-2 mission is nothing new. Think of the weapons load of JDAMs that they can carry and think of all the targets that can be visited in one sortie? Perfect usage and keeps to a minimum all those crews that would have to be exposed to carry out the task.
What do you think the B-2s carry? Have you noticed that it isn’t just one mission? It is perfect usage of this asset to minimise the risk to other assets and crews. Think of the bomb load and all the targets that it can target with their JDAMs? Think three B-2s on the mission and you have your answer.
Because WI Governor Walker isn't backing down.
Either that, or because Obamacare is being declared unConstitutional.
Or possibly, because of some other Obamascandal that needs to be displaced.
It, like the other cross-world sorties at the outbreaks, is just a justification for its existence.
Most fighter aircraft have "relief tubes" to allow the pilots to urinate. I presume bombers have more elaborate facilities. I know the B-50 did, but I've not flown on anything more modern.
One of the problems with the F-104 was that it was originally designed as a short-range interceptor and it was deemed no relief tube would be needed on such a short flight. When the range of the F-104 was extended, the lack of a relief tube became a serious problem.
There's an old Air Force joke about the Wright Field project to put a microphone in the relief tube, so the pilots could p**s and moan at the same time.
Sounds like that son of yours was flying on EC-130 Compass Call Aircraft out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson AZ.
Thanks!
I really don’t know...we were kept pretty much in the dark about his missions. He did mention the plane could really mess with peoples heads on the ground...and we’d all be astounded what the military can do now.
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