Bombers Over Libya
Bombers Over Libya
By John A. Tirpak
Executive Editor
A quick symphony of planning allowed USAF’s heavy bombers to strike 150 targets in Libya.
On March, five Air Force bombers—three B-2s and two B-1Bs—attacked targets in Libya as part of NATO’s mission to protect civilians from government attack in that country’s uprising and civil war.
On the first night of the operation, March 19, three B-2s of the 509th Bomb Wing struck 45 targets at an airfield in Ghardabiya, Libya. Photos of the airfield released by the Pentagon the next day showed hardened aircraft shelters at that base struck with great precision. All were collapsed or showed blackened trails emanating from their entrances, confirming that whatever was inside exploded and burned.
The B-2s flew directly from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and recovered there as well, as they had done previously in Iraq and Serbia. The longer flights in 2001 into Afghanistan required a brief stop at a forward base to change the crews....
Bombers Over Libya
By John A. Tirpak
Executive Editor
A quick symphony of planning allowed USAF’s heavy bombers to strike 150 targets in Libya.
On March, five Air Force bombers—three B-2s and two B-1Bs—attacked targets in Libya as part of NATO’s mission to protect civilians from government attack in that country’s uprising and civil war.
On the first night of the operation, March 19, three B-2s of the 509th Bomb Wing struck 45 targets at an airfield in Ghardabiya, Libya. Photos of the airfield released by the Pentagon the next day showed hardened aircraft shelters at that base struck with great precision. All were collapsed or showed blackened trails emanating from their entrances, confirming that whatever was inside exploded and burned.
The B-2s flew directly from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and recovered there as well, as they had done previously in Iraq and Serbia. The longer flights in 2001 into Afghanistan required a brief stop at a forward base to change the crews....