Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: daveh%tekcrl.labs.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (David Hatcher) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: B-52 bombings Message-ID: <1990Sep2.060557.2162@cbnews.att.com> Date: 2 Sep 90 06:05:57 GMT References: <1990Aug24.034016.305@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Lines: 45 Approved: military@att.att.com From: David Hatcher In article <1990Aug24.034016.305@cbnews.att.com> 0003751365@mcimail.com (Thomas J Klotzbach) writes: > >From: Thomas J Klotzbach <0003751365@mcimail.com> > >Wayne Wood writes: > >> a b52 files over an area and saturates it with 250/500/1000 pounders... >> it ain't accurate, and it ain't pretty, but if you hit a bunker hard >> enough, for long enough, it stops being a bunker and becomes a >> smoking hole in the ground. > >Things have changed a lot since Vietnam. All B-52's now have a completly >re-designed Offensive Avionics System (OAS), which allows for MUCH greater >accuracy in low-level and high-level missions. Anyways, I don't think you would >see a high-level gravity ordnance mission. You're more apt to see the bombers >used for a stand-off role by utilizing their ALCM's, as they can be fitted with >a conventional warhead. Deadly accurate, and hard to defend against. I also want to point out that for saturation bombing, you can't get to many 1000 pounders on a B52. During Vietnam, the primary bomb used for saturation bombing on B52's were 250 pounders. You don't make creaters as large as 500/1000 pounders do, but you cover a much larger area simply because you can carry twice as many bombs. If my memory serves me correctly, we were putting 112 of the 250 pound bombs on each B52 during Vietnam. There were 3 planes per pod with each pod taking off around every 50 min. That was for 24 hour a day, everyday. The only exception was during the bombing of Hanoi. During that period of time we went to a pod taking off every 35 min or so. The only place where I would see a need for that kind of bombing is if Iraq just let the flood gates open with all of its 165,000 plus troups in an invasion of Saudi Arabia. And in that case, those 250 pounders just may be replaced with 250 pound anti-personal bombs. David Hatcher