thedrifter
02-27-03, 05:58 PM
2 hours, 12 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department, preparing for a possible war with Iraq, has ordered the deployment of radar-evading batwing B-2 stealth bombers, Air Force officials said on Thursday.
Lt. Matt Hasson, a spokesman at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, told Reuters that a deployment order had been received, but would not say how many of the 21 B-2 stealth bombers located at the base would deploy or where they might go.
At the Pentagon, another Air Force official said several of the advanced warplanes, each capable of carrying up to 20 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs, were expected to leave in the coming days, but would not be more specific.
The U.S. Air Force has built shelters for its most advanced bomber on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and in Britain. The Pentagon already has deployed B-1 bombers and radar-evading F-117 stealth fighters to the Gulf region along with hundreds of other Air Force and Navy planes in a massive military buildup near Iraq.
The B-2 was not used in the 1991 Gulf War, making its debut in combat operations in the Kosovo campaign in 1999. It flew all the way from the base in Missouri, attacked targets in Yugoslavia and returned to the base.
"The B-2 provides four key characteristics: stealth, precision weapons, large payload and long range," Hasson said. "The combination of stealth and precision represents a real revolution in warfare, allowing destruction of hardened enemy targets with less risk to U.S. airmen."
The B-2's low-observable, or "stealth," characteristics give it the ability to penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses and threaten its most valued, and heavily defended, targets, according to the Air Force.
Hasson said there are about 75 B-2 pilots at Whiteman Air Force Base, but would not say how many would be deployed along with the jets.
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20030227/lthumb.1046381753.kuwait_us_military_iraq_ny184.jp g
In this handout photo from the US Navy made available Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003, Royal Marines from the 40th Commando unit load onto a Landing Craft Utility (LCU) following intensive training in the Kuwaiti Desert, Camp Patriot, Kuwait, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003. Coalition forces have been training together here in recent months, in preparation for any future operations in the Central Command area of responsibility. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Joseph Krypel, HO)
Sempers,
Roger
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department, preparing for a possible war with Iraq, has ordered the deployment of radar-evading batwing B-2 stealth bombers, Air Force officials said on Thursday.
Lt. Matt Hasson, a spokesman at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, told Reuters that a deployment order had been received, but would not say how many of the 21 B-2 stealth bombers located at the base would deploy or where they might go.
At the Pentagon, another Air Force official said several of the advanced warplanes, each capable of carrying up to 20 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs, were expected to leave in the coming days, but would not be more specific.
The U.S. Air Force has built shelters for its most advanced bomber on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and in Britain. The Pentagon already has deployed B-1 bombers and radar-evading F-117 stealth fighters to the Gulf region along with hundreds of other Air Force and Navy planes in a massive military buildup near Iraq.
The B-2 was not used in the 1991 Gulf War, making its debut in combat operations in the Kosovo campaign in 1999. It flew all the way from the base in Missouri, attacked targets in Yugoslavia and returned to the base.
"The B-2 provides four key characteristics: stealth, precision weapons, large payload and long range," Hasson said. "The combination of stealth and precision represents a real revolution in warfare, allowing destruction of hardened enemy targets with less risk to U.S. airmen."
The B-2's low-observable, or "stealth," characteristics give it the ability to penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses and threaten its most valued, and heavily defended, targets, according to the Air Force.
Hasson said there are about 75 B-2 pilots at Whiteman Air Force Base, but would not say how many would be deployed along with the jets.
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20030227/lthumb.1046381753.kuwait_us_military_iraq_ny184.jp g
In this handout photo from the US Navy made available Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003, Royal Marines from the 40th Commando unit load onto a Landing Craft Utility (LCU) following intensive training in the Kuwaiti Desert, Camp Patriot, Kuwait, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003. Coalition forces have been training together here in recent months, in preparation for any future operations in the Central Command area of responsibility. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Joseph Krypel, HO)
Sempers,
Roger