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Ran across an interesting anecdote:<\/p>\n
A couple of decades back, a B-2 Spirit bomber was over the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR). The assigned targets were shipping containers, stacked or arranged to vaguely resemble likely targets. The Spirit was loaded with a full complement of then relatively-new Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) 500 pound bombs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI happened to fly an operational test mission where we tested the carriage of 80 500-pound JDAM [Joint Direct Attack Munition precision guided bombs] and released them all in a span of a little over 20 seconds on an airfield in the UTTR,\u201d Armagost ( Air Force Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost – ed.) said.<\/p>\n
The faux airfield constructed on the UTTR for the September 2003 test was just under a mile long. In addition to two mock runways, one graded and one just a desert strip, it included nine distinct simulated target areas. These were designed to represent an aircraft revetment, a helicopter landing pad, a control tower, a vehicle park, a generic structure, a hangar, an SA-6 surface-to-air missile system site, a fuel storage site, and a Scud ballistic missile launch site. The mock revetment, control tower, generic structure, and hangar were all made using arrays of shipping containers.<\/p>\n
The B-2 bomber, flying at an altitude of some 40,000 feet, released all 80 JDAMs in a single pass. The GPS-assisted guidance packages in the tail fin sections in each of the bombs were programmed to hit a separate aim point, and all of the impacts occurred within a span of approximately 22 seconds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What do you do when your first bombs eliminate ALL the targets? Obviously – make a smiley face. Of explosions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, that\u2019s an amazing sight to behold, such that we even ran out of CONEX boxes to strike, and so [we] drew a smiley face across the runway with JDAMs.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Nowadays they have 1000 lb. and 2000 lb. JDAMs, I read, and the B-2 is the only plane certified to drop the GBU-57 recently in the news fr the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n
Armagost went on to detail some of the bombers’ capabilities and the synergy fighters and bombers can develop with complimentary roles. According to the article, the US is one of only three major powers who have a dedicated bomber fleet (and we know some of the opposition’s bombers are carried-over prop jobs like the Russian TU-95 Bear.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like the example we used to give of World War II attacks requiring massive formations with high numbers of people at risk to get a single target. And then, as we transition through the precision capability, kind of revolution, and then evolution, you get down to single aircraft with single targets. And then the B-2 with multiple targets per aircraft. And, so, most simply, the cost, the strike efficiency, and the cost per kill comes down to: it matters how big your weapons bay is.\u201d\u00a0The War Zone<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Pr the article the upcoming B-21 will not quite have the capacity of a B-2, but will carry more than a B-52. And we are currently slated to buy 100 of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"