In particular the brass want the
long-range bombers to help deter chinese
aggression in the pacific and in the
highly unlikely event of major war send
beijing's hundreds of warships to the
ocean bottom. 160 feet from tip to tail, 185 feet across, 240 tons of metal, fuel, bombs and human
flesh traveling at 650 miles per hour.
You wouldn't think something so big, moving so fast would also be capable of
skimming the ocean surface at an
altitude of just 80 or 90 feet, lower
than the deck of an aircraft carrier. the U.S. air force's boeing B-52 bombers
can and have done just that
and there are photos and pilot
testimonies to prove it.
The air force has started upgrading its
old 60-year-old 52 H bombers with the
latest electronics. Prepping the giant
warplanes for another three decades as
america's most fearsome aerial weapon. In particular the brass want the
long-range bombers to help deter chinese
aggression in the pacific and in the
highly unlikely event of major war send
beijing's hundreds of warships to the
ocean bottom. The B-52 force has been preparing for
that mission for decades. As far back as the late 1970s bomber
crews honed sea skimming flight profiles
that would hopefully allow them to
penetrate stiff enemy defenses and blow
the hell out of ship's soviet ships that
is.
U.S. ended up sending a squadron's worth
of B-52Hs to Guam aitkin recalled. At Guam the deployed crews immediately
began training in the conventional
missions they were not proficient in sea
surveillance, mine lane and conventional
iron bomb missions. The air force still occasionally
practices very low-level B-52 missions
over water. An official photo depicts one of the
bombers flying over a u.s military
sealift command maritime prepositioning
ship during a maritime intercept
training mission.
On july 21st two u.s air force B1B bombers took off from Guam and headed
west over the pacific ocean to the hotly
contested south china sea. The sleek jets
made a low-level pass over the aircraft
carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its
escorting fleet which was exercising
nearby in the philippine sea.
According
to images released by the u s military, the operation was part of the
administration's intensifying challenge
to china's ruling communist party and
its sweeping territorial claims over one
of the world's most important strategic
waterways. While senior officials launched
diplomatic and rhetorical broadsides at
beijing, the u.s defense department is
turning to the firepower of its heavily
armed, long-range bombers as it seeks to
counter beijing's bid to control the
seas off the chinese coast.
Since late january american B1B and B-52
bombers usually operating in pairs have
flown about 20 missions over key
waterways including the south china sea, the east china sea and the sea of japan. According to accounts of these flights
from u s air force statements and
official social media posts, these missions military analysts say are
designed to send a crystal clear signal. The united states can threaten china's
fleet and chinese land targets at any
time from distant bases without having
to move america's aircraft carriers and
other expensive surface warships within
range of beijing's massive arsenal of
missiles.
In this response to the growing power of
china's military the pentagon has
combined some of its oldest weapons with
some of its newest, cold war era bombers
and cutting edge, stealthy missiles, the supersonic B-1B first entered
service in 1986, the newest plane in the
b-52 fleet was built during the Kennedy
administration. But these workhorses can carry a huge
payload of precision weapons, a B-1B can carry 24 of the us military
stealthy new long-range anti-ship
missiles which entered service in 2018
and can strike targets at ranges of up
to 600 kilometers.
According to us and
other western officials, a single B-1 can deliver the same
ordnance payload as an entire carrier
battle group in a day said David Deptula
dean of the washington-based mitchell
institute for aerospace studies and a
retired u.s air force Lieutenant General
and in a crisis he added bombers can be
rapidly deployed.
In a clash with china this fast response
from the bomber force could be vital
while the u.s
and its allies rush naval reinforcements
to the pacific to bolster the vastly
outnumbered u.s naval fleet stationed in
the region, according to current and
former u.s and other western.
