B-52 Close Air Support

[troll]

I'm not a military man, so this is a legit question for those of you who are or have been. ###I'm amazed that the U.S. military would use B-52 bombers for close air support. ###Today, 3 soldiers died from friendly fire. ###The news media may have had it wrong when they stated that the soldiers called in close air support. ###To me, that seems like a dentist using 1/8" drill to drill teeth. ###Any comments or answers?

[spectr17]

troll,

The JDAM (Joint Defense Attack Munition) bomb dropped by B-52s is a highly reliable and accurate bomb. As with all systems, there is a failure rate which means somebody gets hurt or killed. With humans calling in the coordinates to be loaded into the bomb, there can be error introduced by bad GPS readings by the observer or the wrong target coordinates entered into the bomb.

AC-130 gunships are the best close air support but the gunships are creatures of the night and don't work in the day unless there is no threat of anti aircraft missles. I've seen reports that our pilots are now saying they are seeing anit aircraft missles launched at them in southern Afghanistan.

Our 5 soldiers who were hurt in the prison riot were in a rapidly changing situation. They rushed in to save the CIA officers and probably were calling in some real "Danger Close" ###air support to prevent being overrun or the prisoners from escaping.. A JDAM bomb there was what hurt those 5 soldiers also.

The soldiers calling in the close air support use a military Magellan GPS which has a very good accuracy, 1 centimeter if my memory is any good. ###See pic.

http://www.jesseshuntingpage.com/images/magellan-1000-mlitary-gps-front.jpg

Most of the time our soldiers hunker down when the close air is called in "Danger Close" and just the enemy gets caught in the open since they don't know it's coming. By the looks of the terrain over there, there isn't much cover for our troops.


More info on JDMA bombs here.

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/missiles/jdam/flash.htm

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/d...1115bargain.htm (http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/docs/e19991115bargain.htm)


Link for Bomb 101 http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/bombs.htm


Pic of a JDAM bomb. Note the huge steerable composite fins.

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/missiles/jdam/images/d4c-122657-1.jpg

[Fubar]

Jesse That looks like the one Slim Pickens was riding in that movie. ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### Fubar

[spectr17]

Good ole Slim. ###Major Stanley "King" Kong in the movie "Dr, Stangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"


http://www.jesseshuntingpage.com/images/slim-pickens-dr-strangelove-bomb-ride.jpg

He played a good cowboy too. His role in the bean farting scene in Blazin Saddles cracked me up.

http://www.surfnetinc.com/chuck/pal-slim.jpg

[Corndog]

The B-52 is not the best platform for Close Air Support (CAS). ###However, with the JDAM, it is possible. ###There are things that can go wrong though. ###

Number one: ###Coordinates calculated, entered or read off wrong. ###

Two: ###Wrong reference... WGS-84, Clark 77 etc. ###

Three: ###Bad weapon. ###They do exist.

Four: ###Dropped out of range. ###Like Kurt warner trying to throw a 90 yard pass. ###It will land somewhere enroute...

The B-52 can,however, loiter forever and carry a whole bunch of these things. ###

I am dropping a JDAM on Tuesday, in the COSO mntns.