B52's Leaving Fairford United Kingdom

Stratfor ^ | March 18, 2003 | Staff

[richardtavor]

http://www.stratfor.com/promo/?site=usiraq =================================================================

At 1808 GMT (1:08 p.m. EST, 9:08 p.m. Baghdad) B-52 bombers were reported taking off from RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom. Flying time to Iraq is about six hours. Earlier today, they were reportedly loaded with cruise missiles. The British press has also reported that skirmishing has commenced between Iraqi troops and U.S. and British special operations forces near Basra. Coalition aircraft also have attacked 10 Iraqi artillery pieces in the southern no-fly zone, and Israelis have been ordered to open and fit their gas masks, keeping them nearby at all times.

War has not yet commenced, but this is a war alert. More information will be forthcoming as it is available.

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[richardtavor]

Hopefully not already posted, just breaking 2 minutes ago.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[richardtavor]

Deadline ends in 4 hours and 15 minutes.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ping!

[CholeraJoe]

It was posted earlier as saying that they were loaded and ready. This is the first confirmation of launch. Flight time to Baghdad 6-7 hours.

[mhking]

RED ALERT! SHIELDS UP! ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS!

Alert Starfleet. We are about to engage the Borg...

[michigander]

You may want to add this story over here as a confirmation report.

[Thane_Banquo]

BBC apparently televised the take-off of B52s. As someone noted earlier, B52s are not a first-wave attack aircraft.

However, the exception is if they are indeed loaded with cruise missiles. Cruise missiles are usually the first (or among the first) munitions fired at the enemy. Ingress to the Middle East is, what, 7 hours or less for B52s?

[Catspaw]

Good work posting this.

Less than six hours from now?

[Mike Darancette]

Flying time to Iraq is about six hours.

Probably will release Cruise Missiles over the Mediterranean Sea.

[PhiKapMom]

FYI!!!

[glock rocks]

they needn't fly to baghdad. they'll be in target range (cruise launch) by the 8pm est

[Smedley]

B-52s?

Let 'em have it!

[N. Theknow]

Go BUFF's!

[colette_g]

From something I saw on Sky News earlier in the day, "5 hours for the aircraft to reach firing distance to their targets, and another 1-1.5 hours for the missiles to then reach their targets"

[Oldeconomybuyer]

This looks like official confirmation of the earlier BBC post. The liberation of Iraq has begun. USAF advance spotters are lasing targets.

Expect fireworks over Baghdad at the dinner hour as the CNN cameras in the al-Rasheed hotel go dark with the first magneto-electric bomb.

God Bless our soldiers and allies.

[The Wizard]

would you suggest that they would still be the second wave, with the stealths coming in from Diego first?

[MHGinTN]

I would bet my house the N.Koreans are watching more carefully than anyone else int he world! Shock and awe?... Hey Il, want some?

[cynicom]

Part of the opening salvo.

[SamAdams76]

There was a 200-reply thread on this a few hours ago that claimed to have been verified by the BBC with video. To my knowledge, that report was discredited (no offense intended to the one who posted it).

Unless this report can be verified with actual video footage, eyewitnesses or confirmed by other news sources, I'll have to remain dubious.

Nevertheless, if the B-52s were to take off tonight on a mission, this would be about the right time for them to do so (currently midnight in Baghdad). If they are just now taking off, they should be there just before sunrise - now that's what I call quite a wakeup call!