How to draw a smiley face
Ran across an interesting anecdote:
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.
“I 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,” Armagost ( Air Force Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost – ed.) said.
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.
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.
What do you do when your first bombs eliminate ALL the targets? Obviously – make a smiley face. Of explosions.
“I mean, that’s 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.”
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.
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.)
“It’s 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.” The War Zone
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.
Category: Air Force
Now, a NAVY bomber would have made a great big DICK.
Your post should receive the same accolades as a FIRST on the WOT. We all wanted to say it, it had to be said, and you shot first. Well played!
I am humbled by your applause….thank you….remember to tip your waitress…..
Much as I love the idea of 80 500 lb bombs hitting in 22 seconds, the main problem with the “few bombers, big load” idea is when we inevitably lose some. High tech is good but will never fully replace raw numbers.
When mentoring new LTs I have had a hard time getting them to understand that batteries die, electronics fail, etc. tech is great when it works. It doesn’t always work. As a company commander, I made all of my platoon leaders have hard copy battle books, a map and compass (even if they had a GPS or DAGR, and a pencil (pens run out of ink)
Now that’s a LOT harder than it sounds
Too bad. Back in my day, the only way we could navigate was with a map and a compass, plus at night with a pace clicker-counter when in relatively flat terrain. As a platoon leader and company commander, I was expected to and did navigate on foot, from an APC, an in an aircraft. Fortunately, I never failed to be in the location where I thought I was, even when I was a 2LT. Of course, by Ranger school, I had already run over a half dozen land nav courses. Even in Special Forces, a terain map and a compass was the extent of our navigation kit. Although, in the Viet of the Nam, you could ask the Arty battery on the fire support base to shoot a marking round at a designated map coordinate and see if it confirmed your location. I still have the Silva compass with a pace counter I used in Ranger School, and carried throughout my tour in Vietnam and later as an SF ODA commander.
Somehow, I don’t think your young LT’s would have functioned well in my Army and environment without their electronics. Batteries in my environment were only for radios and flashlights. And we even had a hand-crank generator to operate the AN/GRC-109 in SF if we couldn’t get resupplied with batteries.
I did the navigation course when we were up at Fort Drum for the 2 week excersises 1975-1977 NYARNG. one of the Viet of the Nam Vets had the beads and showed us how to use it. Compass,. map and the plastic grid protractor for the map. When I used to attend the National Hurricane conferences. I was in the National grid class, maps and the grid protractors were handed out. these were used for gas pipeline locations where there were leaks.
Yes, we always carried the plastic grid protectors as well. Without one, you could not accurately plot grid coordinates. Except, IIRC, my Silva compass has a grid scale; I think the lensatic issue compass does also.
Ah yes …. the “Ranger Rosary”
“Hail Map full of grids
The LT is upon you!”
FWIW, when Mrs. GB and I were Advisors (adults-nominally-in-charge) for a Venturing Crew, LandNav required topo map and compass work. There was one component where a GPS could be utilized, but they could not pass without proficiency with a paper topo map and a hand-held compass.
Fortunately the Houston Orienteering Club regularly held “meets” (competitions) which we could enter – back before wildfires burned Bastrop State Park to charcoal that was a very challenging environment.
Tell the LT that if a high-school kid can master it, he should be able to.
AB Brother has another story about a shave-tail LT getting them lost in a swamp at Bragg – but that’s for another day.
The first military GPS that I remember getting to use was in 1889-90, weighed about 25-30lbs and had a strap that went around your neck to help you hold it. I don’t remember the model nor the nomenclature. It was pretty cool to us, but wasn’t practical (yet). A very proud moment in my Army career was (prior to commissioning) another NCO and myself navigated across NTC with a map and compass faster than the PLGR could navigate for us. We would stop and check our navigation against the GPS just to make sure that we were correct.
Drawing a Smiley Face THE HARD WAY:
Chinese Navy and Coast Guard Ships Collide | Watch
You might want to FFWD to the 50 second mark, although the whole video is pretty decent.
That was some shot of the 1 chinese ship hitting the other chinese ship and the Philipino coast guard asking if they need any medical help. Nice Philipino Chick on the mike offering any needed medical aid.
I wonder what happened to the Chinese CG crew members who were on the bow of the ship moments before the Navy Destroyer took the entire bow off the ship? I don’t see how they could have gotten out of the way in time and that didn’t look survivable.
They became Moo-Goo-Guy Dead.
After my above comment a few hours ago, I’m on the recliner and all of a sudden, the Chinese landing maneuver comes into my head. During 4 hour watches while steaming or anchored, A-Div supplied the Boat engineers for the motor whale boats (life boat) and we used the Utility boats while anchored. the boat engineers job was fueling the utility boat, making sure the bilge plugs were in or out and while running the boat, I was the stern hook in the boats which which involved tying the stern to the pier in liberty ports and the bowhook was a deck ape that took care of the bow work. The raymond quick realise hook pops into my head which the liftings lines were attached to. Sorry, I went off on another tangent. The Chinese landing manuever is used to make a sharp turn to avoid another boat or object. When we returned to the ship either empty of Marines and Squids, we tied up at the ships accomidation ladder so a couple of times, the coxwain would say,I’m going to do the chinese landing. I wonder if one of those 2 ships with their speed would have enough time to execute the manuever. Reversing the thrust and shifting the boats are part of the manuever.
Could the Chinese coast guard cutter have been trying to overtake the Philippine cutter so they could hose it down with that water cannon? That looked like what it was attempting. It certainly wasn’t fire fighting.
I noticed the water deluge gun, which is done regulary when they meet.
“Will your captain require assistance to remove his seat cushion from his sphincter?”
Cool photo. That’s a lot of bombs. Must be stacked up to the
ceiling inside.
I have some photos from my dad’s collection (B-17 bombardier) that show hundreds of incindaries being dropped.
I think they were 150-200lb but may have been lighter.
Unguided but for the bombadiers skill and the Norden sight.
Death from above…
B-17 held less than 5,000 pounds of bombs, the B-2 80,000 – stealthily. Not sure how far away radar can get a return on a Fortress.
Today’s radar would see them taxi before take off.
B2 vulnerability is only for as long as the bomb bay doors are open…aprox. 10 seconds or less. Not even enough time for the radar guy to say; “Hey, Hung-small, you see what I see?”
Or perhaps in the Boeing factories.
Actual bomb load of a B17, was 12,000lbs. However, fuel, ammo, guns, crew, and length of mission dictated the load.
So, are you saying the B2 is more capable than the upcoming B21? What are the advantages of the B21 then, besides being cheaper?
I suspect they might be tasked with a different type of mission, and we might keep the B2 for those missions that require the higher payload.
The B21 is old enough to drink.
B21 is easier to work on, uses off-the-shelf parts, has much better mileage, is much more technologically advanced (B2 is 35 years old), uses much more advanced stealth tech and aerodynamics tech. While the load is smaller, it can get there with less fuel, much better concealed, and drop more accurately. B21 can be used when we don’t have air superiority.
B2 isn’t going away, same as the B52. Just different missions.