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| US Air Force B-2 Bomber Drops 80 JDAMS in Historic Test |
| 2003-09-27 |
| From Space Daily; EFL Boeing and the U.S. Air Force successfully completed their first 80 guided weapon flight test demonstration of the MK-82 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). The drop took place from a B-2A bomber on September 10 at the Utah Test & Training Range, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The B-2A aircraft, based at Edwards AFB, Calif., flew to the test site and released the 80 weapons in a single 22-second pass. The weapons were released from four Boeing-designed and built "smart" bomb racks, flew their planned flight paths and attacked all 80 targets. "Placing maximum steel on the target is what we get paid to do as Air Force bomber pilots and that happened today in a big way," said Major William Power, 419th Flight Test Squadron B-2A project pilot. "Dropping 80 JDAM MK-82s in less than 30 seconds, with each attacking their own individual targets, is truly revolutionary." |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #17 Ship - G model can only carry 86 500lb weapons. The old "D" model held the record for ordinance: 106 750lb "dumb" bombs. Could also load up with 58 2000lb weapons, for a harder-hitting attack. Just load 'em all up: B-52, B-1, B-2, and the remaining F-111B's in the inventory. Of course, you don't do squat without good intel... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-9-27 11:15:29 PM |
| #16 Let's see....B2 carries 80... hmmm... in a low threat environment a B-52G could carry what - 200?As far as concrete bombs... ice is better. No evidence. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-9-27 6:26:57 PM |
| #15 The drop took place from a B-2A bomber on September 10 at the Utah Test & Training Range, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. What about our test and training range in downtown Tikrit? |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-9-27 4:48:24 PM |
| #14 While patrolling the Iraqi No-Fly zones: "I can't use a 500-pound, high-explosive bomb against a missile launcher if it's parked within X-thousand feet of any civilian facility. But if I've got good enough precision, and I can hit it with 500 pounds of concrete, that does the trick. So we began doing that," [Major General David] Deptula said. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-9-27 3:05:43 PM |
| #13 Re: JDAM guidance systems... didn't they put some guidance stuff on concrete-filled cases during GWII? Thought they were using those in Baghdad to take out some stationary targets. If nothing else, one of these through the roof would certainly send a clear message... might even be fun to drop one or two into the middle of one of the Palestinian Marching Society's many get-togethers... and if you hit someone, put out a press release that basically says "That's the guy we were aiming at..." It might shut Rantisi up, at any rate... |
| Posted by: snellenr 2003-9-27 2:52:00 PM |
| #12 Pretty awesome concept. Too bad they can't burrow 1,000 meters into solid rock. But come on, don't fool yourselves. The enemy would just start draping school children over their armored vehicles and weapons systems. The international community's deafening silence over that tactic would only turn into a deafening roar when we destroyed them. Hell, any enemy we face could fling Flaming Nuns (TM) at our forces and we'd still be the bad guys for not catching them (softly) and putting them out in time to save their lives. I do like the blimp idea. I think adorning it with Koran's, Allah's name, and claiming it on the muslim list of holy places # 6,894,323 right after that Dairy Queen on 5th and Main in Riyadh may do the trick. We could rig the Koran's with grenades so when the JDAM's are gone we can drop them like "Holy Hand Grenades" (TM). |
| Posted by: Paul 2003-9-27 2:16:31 PM |
| #11 I guess that would be "throw-rug bombing" eh, Bomb-a-rama? |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2003-9-27 2:16:02 PM |
| #10 He indicated that JDAM guidance systems were being applied to smalled bombs (i.e. 250 pounds), which means that 80 targets could just be a htreshhold and we might be looking at even more bombs on target in a single pass. Wow, think of the possibilities - Smart carpet bombing. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-9-27 1:29:43 PM |
| #9 Talk about shock and awe. Gomer would be saying gollollee for a week. Good post. Thanks DAR. |
| Posted by: Gasse Katze 2003-9-27 1:18:31 PM |
| #8 A blimp @ 15 or 20,000 feet would be essentially invulnerable to the sorts of non-flying pests we're fighting today It would be the same old arms race. Soon the Russians would have a blimp with a 60 foot carbon fibre needle on the nose. RAMMING SPEED! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-9-27 12:42:19 PM |
| #7 That's the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) project. I believe they are for use on fighter bombers like the F-22 and F-16, but you could pack well over 100 in a big bomber. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-9-27 12:21:18 PM |
| #6 I know one of the project managers for the JDAM program. He indicated that JDAM guidance systems were being applied to smalled bombs (i.e. 250 pounds), which means that 80 targets could just be a htreshhold and we might be looking at even more bombs on target in a single pass. The reason for the smaller bombs is the proven precision of the JDAM system. |
| Posted by: Douglas De Bono 2003-9-27 12:12:42 PM |
| #5 A blimp @ 15 or 20,000 feet would be essentially invulnerable to the sorts of non-flying pests we're fighting today. Paint it the same smoke-gray/blue that is used in our current camo scheme (active camo would be even better -- keep working on it, DARPA). We ought to build at least one ULA , codename "Fluffy", and park it somewhere over the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. |
| Posted by: snellenr 2003-9-27 11:53:52 AM |
| #4 The blimp shall be painted in a soft fluffy white pattern - thus avoiding detection. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-27 11:18:08 AM |
| #3 don't think a blimp would last very long over a target area |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-9-27 10:58:54 AM |
| #2 If you fit the same rack on a radio controlled blimp the size of a good year blimp, you would have immediate death waiting overhead with unlimited time on station. Add a few IR cameras and you get surveilence to boot. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-27 10:34:47 AM |
| #1 Wow--gone are the days when the ratio was 80 planes (at least) to 1 target! Incredible. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-9-27 9:07:43 AM |