Breaking: Foxnews: B1 Bombers Drop JDAMs in Southern Iraq

FoxNEws

[1stFreedom]

B1's drop JDAMS in southern no fly zone. Obviously things are heating up.

[PhiKapMom]

I was up at Tinker when one of them came in -- gives you the creeps to see it in the sky. When the family was at Norton AFB, CA, we lived in Yucaipa and the AF used to do test flights of aircraft around the mountains in back of us. My son saw the B-2 during test flight when he was really little and came running in the house for me to go see this plane up by San Gorgornio.

I always thought he was seeing something but not a plane that Batman would fly. When they finally announced to the public that the B-2 existed, my son tells me "Mom, I Told You So!" He was right!

[AndrewC]

Combat Use

The first combat use of the B-1B was in December of 1998 in operation Desert Fox where the aircraft penetrated Iraqi air defenses to destroy Republican Guard barracks. This debut mission validated the B-1B’s conventional role and its ability to operate in a force package. In 1999 six B-1Bs were deployed to Royal Air Force Base Fairford to support Operation Allied Force in Kosovo. Those six aircraft accounted for 2% of the combat sorties yet they dropped more than 20% of the total tonnage in the conflict. In operation Enduring Freedom, B-1Bs accounted for 5% of the strike sorties into Afghanistan yet dropped 40% of the total weapons. These aircraft dropped more than 70% of the precision-guided JDAM weapons. The combination of the B-1B and JDAM weapons was so reliable that they were called on to perform close air support for troops on the ground.


Records

The B-1B holds 61 world records for speed, payload and distance. The National Aeronautic Association recognized the B-1B for completing one of the 10 most memorable record flights for 1994.

[csvset]

Several years ago at NAS Oceana, I had a F-117 Nighthawk fly over. I was surprised at how quiet it was.

[Allan]

My earlier supposition
that the US wants to provoke a WMD attack
begins to look more probable.

(Am I allowed to say that here??)

[MaeWest]

'Mierde'

Too funny!
Don't you mean, 'chirac'?

[Severa]

For an ear buster try this on: the submarine pier at NAS Norfolk is on the direct flight path for nearby Chambers Field. I was standing next to my husband's sub with the kids when a C5 came in on final approach. Now my youngest son, who normally screams in delight and points at anything even remotely resembling an aircraft, was holding on for dear life and crying his head off. My oldest son was doing the same. The noise from that plane was just amazingly painful.

[Starrgaizr]

How much ya wanna bet that that 'tomato canning plant' will be 'pureed' within a week? ;-)

[BJClinton]

Is it difficult to sit in front of the computer with that corn cob so far up your butt?

[Wisconsin]

During the 1973 arab-israeli war, we lived near Oceana NAS in Virginia Beach. Normal flight pattern put heavy departing aircraft at maybe 2,000 ft altitude over our house.

At the same time that Pres. Nixon was pretending we had not made up our minds on support, the house was shaking -- really shaking with plates jiggling across the table-- because C-5's were passing over the house at about 400', maxed out, with long black exhausts (from water injection to increase takeoff power?).

Now..that was loud.

My next door neighbor, an A-6 pilot and I discussed it-- he was out of work as all their drop racks were in one of the C-5's going to Israel.

[null and void]

By the way, this is a B1:

tee hee hee

[EternalVigilance]

That'd make one heck of a pot of spaghetti!

Prob'ly feed the Iraqi people for a month! ;-)

[Sparta]

Hey, I'm supposed to post the pictures of the bombs coming out :)

[null and void]

I understand. We're all a bit edgey.

Sorry I snapped at you.

Twice.

[brooklin]

yes , the B-1 is a beautiful plane and a very capable plane. It's too bad that the air force is trying to get rid of them because they are expensive to maintain.

[Servant of the Nine]

Didn't Flash Gordon fly one of these in the old serials?

So9

[CholeraJoe]

That's a great pic but a little far fetched. B-1's can fly low but for safety would probably never fly THAT low. The lowest I ever saw one fly at Dyess with the wings back and the gear up was about 200 feet.

[razbinn]

...all your jdams are belong to us...

[error99]

Although this does not have anything to do with anything...
I always liked this old B-52 picture.
She's flying at high altitude in a bit of a haze.
Ground observers thought it was 4 jets flying in formation...

(uh-oh, now I guess 10,000 freepers will reply with,
"HEY THAT'S NOT A B-1, you jack-ass.")

[null and void]

True, but why ruin a good story?

[AppyPappy]

HEY THAT'S NOT A B-1, you jack-ass