Yes but the accuracy of laser guidance increased, from 20% in Vietnam to 80% in Desert Storm, to even higher figures now and lower CEPs amongst the Western Nations. With no change in International Humanitarian Law in the period, it is no wonder why actors like Hamas need to embed with the civilian populace to keep civilian casualty rates somewhat high. Bear this in mind with Amnesty's report today and the criticism of the supply of JDAM kits.
@@EmsThaBreaks441 'International Humanitarian Law" is an absolute myth. The sooner we realize that then the sooner we can bring an end to a particular campaign.
I did notice, as a 76-year-old man that heard the stories from my family about WW2, and serving in Vietnam myself, the changes were like night and day, but like a wise young man once said, "Just because technology is improving doesn't mean our humanity is." ~John Lovell (Warrior poet)
I served on a carrier during the Vietnam war in the early 70's. On my second deployment in 1972 I saw a new type of bomb being loaded on a F-4 that I never seen before and someone told me it was a new type of bomb that was laser guided. I later heard about a bridge in N. Vietnam that was repeatedly bomb unsuccessfully, but the first attempt with the laser guided destroyed it.
@@adammetzger4182 Actually the laser guidance units were fairly simple then, they used the control unit from a Shrike missile which was pretty simple. A laser seeker head was attached to the front of it.
@@AndrewJeffersonCotter In the back of an old arms room, I found the original Vietnam-era manual for the TVS-5 night vision scope for a crew served weapon, still classified as SECRET.
Its pretty simple to understand. One F-15E can carry up 16 GBU-38s while a B-2 can carry to 80 Effectively 5 F-15Es or 1 B-2 More the point, bombers can mix and match their payloads. The B-1B for example can carry a mix of GBU-31s/39 plus AGM-154 and AGM-158s But most important is that bombers combat radius is far greater than strike fighters They can fly thousands of miles or orbit for hours without the need to hit the tanker F-15E, F-16s and F-18 have to top off hourly Adding conventional strike capabilities to their bombers was the smartest thing the USAF ever did
And in the modern world of BVR air-to-air, loading up a B-2 with AIM-120s would probably give you the most effective air superiority platform in the world
The JDAM conversion kit is an amazing idea, adding smarts to dumb bombs that would otherwise be discarded. I find its accuracy amazing! Of course, other countries have adopted this idea, but the goal of reducing damage to non-military areas remains aspirational.
CEP Miss Distance in OAF was actually about 2.65m. With a 2,000lb/5,000lb munition, that's pretty good. Also, the original IAMs were not JDAMs but GAMs. Or GPS Aided Munitions. GBU-36/37. Dropped from a custom GATS or GPS Aided Targeting System that took specific advantage of the B-2's internal nav accuracy (APQ-181, dual RLG INS) and covert star tracker/GPS fused offboard system to drop custom bombs. Actual JDAMs came later, in the sandbox.
There used to be a say, "when the last B-2 is delivered to Davis Monthan, its crew will be picked up by a B-52." The B-1 and B-2 will be retired within 10 years. When the last B-21 is delivered to Davis Monthan, its crew will be picked up by a B-52J.
I don't know if the B-1 or B-2 will be retired because air combat is evolving. Airframes are expensive. Upgrades are cheap. Think of this in modern terms. In 1990 a Chevy pick-up could be purchased for less than $10K. In 2024 the high end pick-ups are going for over $110K. It's just cheaper to swap out engines and have USAF airmen do maintenance. Also, there is one HUGE torpedo in the water that may kill any more upgrades or aircraft purchases. The aggregate Federal Debt is *$36 Trillion* dollars. The US Voters made some terrible mistakes in voting for spend thrift politicians. In 2025 the bill comes due.
B-1B is being readied out to 2040. Current fleet is at about 12,000 hours Testing the fuselage and wings out to 27,000 and 28,000 hours and are developing fixes for the fleet. They just cut down to 45 in the fleet after retiring birds that required $10- 30 million just to remain flightworthy. .The assembly line at Tinker get 2 birds every month. Each bird gets about 5500 hours of work. These will be around to see B-21 reach FOC. They can carry too many JASSM/LRASM (24) to retire that capability.
@@Easy-Eight That doesn't work for the B-2. Modularity was not a concern when the aircraft was designed, and the entire air frame needs to be disassembled to maintain stealth capabilities just when certain parts are swapped out. Making upgrades to the airframe are therefore, significantly more expensive than you would expect. So a massive part of the push for the next gen bomber is to actually be CHEAPER in the long run than the B-2 spirit is. Comparing the cutting edge in stealth aeronautical technology to a pick up truck is ludicrous.
@@MistaOppritunity *Comparing the cutting edge in stealth aeronautical technology to a pick up truck is ludicrous.* Let me give you a dose of reality: by the time Trump takes over by 20 January 2025 the aggregate Federal debt will be *$37 Trillion* . The USA is on it's way to having insolvent currency. I'm saying the USA better figure out a way to rebuild its existing fleet because if China dumps its T-bills at a discount then you get to see currency collapse. Then again you may never heard of Weimar Germany. The USAF d*mn well does not need the B-21.
I love how short your videos are. You say what you need to say, and nothing more. You don't grind every video to 30+ minutes like a lot of guys do. I really appreciate this.
Thats all 90s tech, everybody is aware of all that by now. The real evolution is the maturity of glide bombs, air-launched cruise missiles, and sensor fusion technology. When paired with a stealth fighter or other such platform as a spotter, bombers can now deliver presision payloads en masse against targets from hundreds of miles away.
The media often talk about the cost of precision weapons, but they fail to account for the cost of the other option, area bombing with multiple aircraft, that increases the weapons cost, fuel costs, lives lost and the risk to your aircrew, the more aircraft in the sky, the better target they become, and even if in a massed raid your loss rate was only 2%, that is still 2% of your fleet and 2% of your precious human resource. It costs about $35,000 (average across the range) for a JDAM kit, and a Mk 84 900kg (2000Ib) "dumb" bomb comes in at around the same price - so a Mk 84 2000Ib (900kg) JDAM costs around $70,000. If you hit your target with a single bomb, that is significantly cheaper than 20 aircraft dropping 320 (20 x 16 bombs each - ~$11.2Million), plus the costs of the bombers - $2 Billion each - so 20 of them is a cost risk of $40 billion plus they have 2 crew each - so 40 aircrew lives at risk. Assuming that only 1 is shot down - your cost has rocketed from risking 1 aircraft and 2 crew, plus fuel and weapon, to an actual real cost of $2 billion, plus ordnance, plus fuel plus 2 crew - Intelligent systems not only save on overall strategic and tactical costs, but they also reduce strategic and tactical risks.
You could add further that bombers evolved into air support for ground operations. The B-1 was used as a “bomb truck” over Afghanistan, hours on station with an airborne arsenal.
I've been at Barksdale AFB, home of half the B-52 fleet, and now home to Air Force Global Strike Command for close to 18 of the last 24 years. Believe me I've noticed and been part of some of these changes! I can actually hear one of the Buffs taking off now while I sit here typing this!
What's not to like? Greater accuracy + fewer bombs required + more complete distruction of targets + fewer airplanes needed per target + fewer air crews put in harms way + less collateral damage and deaths = lower cost to us. That last part seems cold to say, but it is important.
Yes, advanced technology can minimize damage to unwanted targets but can’t 100% avoid it. Weapons can miss, bad intelligence on a target, or debris from a shot down target landing in a civilian zone are all still things that happen. Just because technology can improve to fight a cleaner war doesn’t escape the reality that war of any kind is hell.
I noticed immediately. Gulf War 1 was the first conflict I saw ('78 baby). When we went from 'planes per target' to 'targets per plane,' it was a gamechanger. Add stealth for true 'glad it's on our side' terror. And modern people can't comprehend older military tactics, so they see carpet bombing as deliberate civilian massacres in all situations. (Firebombing Tokyo, etc. is why I mentioned "in all situations". Those WERE terror attacks.) They don't accept we couldn't have done precision strategic bombing before the late Vietnam war, and therefore limited casualties.
As an old SAC weather officer, dropping dumb bombs into jetstreams is just nuts. But that is why BUFFs could haul 51 or even 108 general purpose aerial bombs back then.
@@ARGONUAT Big Belly mods on the BUF? Did you do any work with Nuclear Effects such as fallout related to wind. Just curious if that was part of your SAC training purview.
@@hoghogwild As a 23-year old brand new 2LT right out of college, it was somewhat of a mind blowing experience. The older sergeants and officers kind of looked at us with bemused experience as we wrangled, trying to figure the data out for this type of forecasting. The vets knew we would never find out if war went hot because the Russian nuclear weapons worked back then and we would have been obliterated within 15 minutes of first launch.
I was staying in a building Northeast of Barksdale on a post Tornado outbreak recovery mission. Buff has a Defiant sound that will wake you up. Thank you for your service.
Yes we noticed. we noticed during the first gulf war over 30 years ago, that instead of hitting anywhere within 5 miles of the target, with 1 bomb you can hit within 5 meters of the target
I was born in 1981 and have seen all of this bomber tech transform. The apex was being at my big sister’s Air Force Academy graduation in 1997, the Air Force doing a fly-by, and watching as a B-2 Bomber flies over me at age 16. It was magnificant!
During Linebacker 2 the B-52s did drop a LOT of dumb bombs. But over in Thailand the F-4 Phantoms were equipped with camera guided 2000 pound bombs. When it was fun powering up all the avionics including the cameras just so I could visually track a security policeman walking in front of the revetment where the aircraft was parked. 19 years old wearing 2 stripes.
And the bomber is almost certainly evolving again. Bombers flying over the Pacific with dozens of drone wingmen as a payload. Once released, those drones being controlled by members of the Bomber crew.
It is great to see a video to put all this perspective. We focus on the minutia and critique them. The big picture taken as a whole, what we have acompished is amazing
This video was out of date 20 years ago. Bombs will now only be used while being attached to drones, these drones are going to use navigation based on the location of the stars so they will work when gps is jammed, and they will find their target without a human pilot. They may also use the earth's magnetic field or any other useful technology to determine their location without relying on out dated systems like gps or lasers.
I enjoy all of your videos. I still strongly encourage a series on what each phase of modern warfare could look like today. Each step has advanced so much that there's enough material to do a lengthy series, starting with the first acts, which would likely be eliminating the SAM threats, then targeting communications, then command and control, electronic warefare and how awacs and growlers work, etc. It could be amazing, comparing WWII strategies and methods, to desert storm to what war with China would likely look like.
and due to higher accuracy, we don't need as much explosive, and thus we get teh Small Diameter Bomb. And most bombing missions are now flown by Fighters rather than dedicated bombers.
And those guided tiny bombs are excellent for close air support. In Afghanistan, the B1 bomber was doing killer work at close air support using smaller JDAM's. Arguably better than the A-10. The SDB's will allow our massive fleet of strike fighters to do the same, even relatively close to friendly troops. The sensors and electronics on an F-35 would let it drop an SDB extremely close to friendlies relatively safely.
That might be a problem when bombing factories, since a lot of the equipment is fairly heavily built. A big explosion can warp the stuff it doesn't outright destroy. A small explosion might only destroy the one machine and maybe stuff near it. This would be an issue, if - for example - you want to destroy some chip factories in Taiwan
@@recoil53 not at all. most things like chip factories, have highly delicate machinery, and when teh roof and such collapses and fires break out, they are damaged even further. Even small bombs with high explosives do a lot of damage and throw a lot of shrapnel. Also, there are numerous other ways to stop a factory, even without striking the factory directly. can't make anything if the machines and resources never make it to the factory. And look at Russia, with their lack of circuits and chips, makes it difficult to finish aircraft and weapons. They import that stuff, and so with sanctions they can build the mechanical hulks, but less the critical electronics, making them useless. But the US has never had trouble taking out an enemy military in modern times. and we've rarely even gone after factories at all in modern conflicts. Modern weapons are too complex to build quickly, and so by the time the US lightning war is over in the first few weeks, there is so much destruction and chaos, that new production is the last thing on the enemy's mind. When we can destroy in 2weeks what it takes them 6-12months to produce, they'll never keep up. Precision strikes, with minimally sized weapons gives best results. A fully loaded F-15E could theoretically carry something like 50-60 Small Diameter Bombs! That's a LOT of targets for one fighter bomber. And if that F-15E orbits at 40k ft while striking, the bombs can glide something like 50miles to reach their targets. Being able to send One fighter to strike 50+ individual targets in a single sortie from 0-50miles away is CRAZY! And such a strike would be minimal in cost compared to sending 10x F-15Es with 4x 2000lb bombs each, and actually be more effective (40 targets while risking 10 aircraft at 0-2miles from target vs 50+ targets while risking 1 aircraft at 0-50miles from target). And by the way, I've received CAS from A-10, B-1, F-15E, and more in actual combat. Just so that you know where some of my opinions and understanding are coming from.
@@Elthenar I personally received Danger Close air support from a B-1 in Afghanistan. 38x 500lb bombs dropped within 200-500yds of our position one night. I'll never forget that. I also received CAS from the A-10s of the 23rd Flying Tigers. Close up gun attacks. Nothing like seeing an A-10 attack, and it truly does put the enemy on notice. The enemy never sees the B-1 coming, but they see the A-10,a nd that is more effective than people realize at pushing back enemy attacks. Some times a show of force is required. "The sensors and electronics on an F-35 would let it drop an SDB extremely close to friendlies relatively safely." same for the F-15E and F-15EX, which can theoretically carry up to 50-60 SDBs at once. and SDBs have a potential glide range after drop of up to 50miles to target, allowing significant standoff from the targets. The F-15E would orbit overhead in Afghanistan and just wait for calls for air support. You could spot them if you looked hard enough, just flying circles overhead, waiting. In Iraq my unit got CAS mostly from AV-8B, F-18, AH-1, UH-1, AH-64....(with the Marines) In Afghanistan my unit got it mostly from Kiowa, AH-64, A-10, B-1, and F-15E... (with the Navy Seabees)
I'm a former USAF weapon's tech who went over to US Army field artillery. JDAMS was the game changer but there had been LGBs, infrared, and TV optics for munitions That's not even counting the old US Army Pershing II that had ungodly accuracy (not quite necessary for a nuke). The trouble was expense. Also, the carrying aircraft had to be extensively modified with old analog technology. The aircraft that changed the game was the old A-7D which introduced iron bombs to precision accuracy. The F-16 and F-18 were the next level. In the Field Artillery they taught us that few targets can survive an absolute direct hit. Even an M-1 tank will be knocked out of action by the correct application of a mere 25 pound bomb on the engine deck. The USAF SDB guided bomb makes any good fighter into a "strategic" bomber.
Linebacker 2. That's the op my dad was on. Worked as a crew chief and flew on planes after they were fixed - pilots wouldn't fly the planes after repairs unless the crew chief was willing to fly on it. I asked him one time "Dad what does FLAK look like?" His answer was "I don't remember, I was too busy watching for SAM launches". He suffers from health issues as a result of agent orange exposure - they sprayed the perimeter of his base. He and his crew had to make an emergency run to one of the airports in south vietnam after a B52 made an emergency landing. The bomber had had it's fuel tanks shredded by AAA. So he and his crew had to fit a fuel bladder and hook it up to bypass the damage and repair other damage to get it flying again - while under mortar fire.
The only reason I noticed is because I grew up with these Air Force programs. I was at Edwards Air Force Base for the B-1A, the B-1B, the B-2, and a top secret electronic warfare B-52, nicknamed Ghost Buster with a pink pac-man ghost on the pilot side. The F-117 was the reason that we went to the Mojave Desert.
Don't get me wrong, I managed to have a blast at Edwards, but if you want to stick me somewhere remote for 9 years I would take Okinawa or Guam first! I spent a total of 5 years between those two.
Well, the "laying waste to a whole area" thing never completely went away. Although there are not many tools left in inventory to do that. Once in a while, that's exactly the goal. Once in a while, you don't really know 'exactly' where a target is, and you gotta flatten a square mile. Or, less savory or PC... it could be done to "make a point". Also, I think everybody noticed ;)
I remember the first day of that operation. Young Airman me showed up to base for the day and there were tons of news trucks and reporters outside the front gate. Most of the B2s were in the air doing patterns. I remember thinking "WTF, did one of them crash or something?" Only after I got into my shop were we briefed on what was going on.
I think the B-1B is perfect for being a middle truck. The F-35 picking targets and data link the info back to the B-1B to launch and F-22 protecting the B-1B. It's got the legs and ability to do the mission.
I was in the Navy from 1971 - 1981. My first WestPac cruise was 1972 - 1973 while Vietnam was still a hot war. We had laser bomb guidance units at that time. I know this for a fact because it was part of my job to test them before they were attached to the bombs.
I often think that a replacement for the B-1B needs to happen in some form in order to support troops on the ground in situations far away when something needs to get there fast and you can't just send a new hypersonic missile. Maybe future fighters or supersonic drones will fill that role but I question if they'll have the range for every mission like some in Afghanistan that saved American lives. I'm curious what the solution will be.
The B-21 will be able to do that mission while loitering overhead for 10+ hours and provide ISR info to. Acting as a comm relay is another feature that is possible for it and other airframes.
@@Matt.Willoughby Aside from a much smaller payload limiting the kind and amount of munitions it can deliver, the B-21 is also (probably) subsonic-only. It will not "get there fast".
@CptJistuce get there fast enough will have to be fast enough. I like to believe that the USA has secret procurement and has plenty of F22, B1, F117 and so on stashed away somewhere. The black holes in military budgets and dark money, trillions of dollars a year must go somewhere useful. I hope Trump doesn't mess America up too much 😔
I would like to see a modernized variant of a B1 Lancer built from scratch with same characteristics but able to fly faster an carry a little bit more payload we definitely need a aircraft that can be used if ever needed for unconventional warfare and targets that we wouldn't need to pull out a stealth bomber for. similar to what the B1 is able to do now but built with modern materials and Technology and have low running cost and easier to maintain
I truly wonder what the Bomber Mafia of the 1930s would think of today’s heavies. Even Curtis LeMay I think would be astounded by what even his old B-52Hs can do today!
As any reader of Dale Brown's "Flight of the Old Dog" can tell you..."I told you so." I still think that the Raider should be designated as F/B-21 not just B-21. Semper Fi!
@@dallasyap3064...but what other platform offers the flexibility and utility that the Raider will at this level of tech? None. It is the tip of the spear.
My father was part of linebacker 2. He claims the B 52 shot down three migs and an F4 with the tail gun. But I have read otherwise. I wonder what the real story is.
The real story is a 1 verified mig shot down with the quad 50 cal tail guns. Could it have been more? Possibly. Considering only the US flew F4 in Vietnam that part of the story is most likely false.
According to Air Force documents (as well as the crew who flew it) yes 2 B-52s shot down about 3 MIGs during 72. One of these incidents was witnessed by crew of another US aircraft (I'm not sure was it another separate B-52 or some other fighter plane).
@dallasyap3064 pops gave the impression the F4 that was shot down was swept under the rug. Apparently the radar controlled tail guns didn't discriminate
As an old crew chief, I had to come here and say the pictures of the JADAM are upside-down. 😂😂😂 Your hooks are on the bottom. Still love your videos. Keep it up.
The use of GPS is just the latest addition in the spectrum of precision guidance tech to enter into widespread use. The ability to precision-strike targets has been sought by air powers across the globe, since at least the 1930's, when the first dive-bombers entered service in different countries' air forces.
USAF did a test where one aircraft dropped a whole bunch of 500 pound JDAMs and hit point targets representing the various items on an airfield target complex.
There was a value in laying waste to huge portions of enemy cities. It’s awful, but it’s hard to conduct an insurgency when you have no food, water or fuel
@Sandboxx - Another game-changing development for bombers is their ability to fire air-to-air missiles and cruise missiles with ranges of 600 to 2,000 miles. Theoretically, a B-2 Spirit could deploy 300-400 Hero-120 loitering munitions (effective against armor, infantry groups, or logistics), each with a range of 40-60 miles, assuming sufficient AI or communications capacity to control them. Additionally, a B-2 could potentially launch around 1,000 small FPV quadcopters, each carrying a grenade-level explosive payload, or even 50,000-100,000 tiny Black Hornet drones equipped with 3g of explosives for anti-personnel use. These possible examples show the versatility of today's modern bombers. And that's just the bombers...A C5 Galaxy could potentially carry and launch 950K Black Hornet Drones at once...just in case you needed to be able to clear some trenches of personnel - across an entire country. Hmmm...We probably need to start building more production capacity to make more and less expensive drones.
Furthermore, the bombing mission is splitting into stand-off/loiter attack roles, and the contested airspace penetration missions. The former can be accomplished with cargo planes, while only the latter requires a dedicated bomber aircraft. And dedicated bomber aircraft are branching out into the long range intercept and air to air arsenal ship mission. The B-21 will serve as a penetration bomber for itches that even standoff ordinance can't scratch. In the short term, C-130s and C-17s will fulfill the stand-off/loiter role, overwhelming targets within contested airspace with swarms of cruise missiles, or orbiting a low intensity battlefield, providing close air support with hundreds of small, precision guided bombs. Eventually, they, and the venerable BUFF, will be replaced with a larger blended wing aircraft that quadruples as a bomber, strategic airlifter, tanker, and airborne surveillance craft in that mission.
Yet ANOTHER excellent video. I can't help but realize though... Civilian vs military target defining is a grey area when the civilian population is supporting the military war effort.
Laser-guided bombs were actually first employed in the Vietnam War, though to a far lesser extent; only in the Gulf War was it used more widely and actively. Bomb technology has indeed advanced a lot. Now the US has the Rapid Dragon system that basically turns C-130s and C-17s into airborne missile launchers (firing AGM-158 cruise missiles).
Absolutely mind-blowing how precision technology transformed bombers from “shotguns” to “sniper rifles”! It’s incredible to see the impact on reducing civilian casualties. What do you all think the next big innovation in military aviation will be?
2:41 "....then in 1991 ...things began to shift..." Correct me if I am wrong but the F111s that went into Lybia in 1986 used self designating LGBs. And in 1972 the last F4E's in SEA were capable of shooting TISEO guided fire and forget Maverick ground attack missiles. It started much before 1991.
You're right. But Desert Storm is the war where LGBs was first widely and actively employed. Just like how helicopters were first used in combat in 1944 during ww2, but it wasn't exactly revolutionized or widely used until US involvement in Vietnam.
And during the Korean War is another time when the Navy rose to the occasion. The USAF B29s dropped many bombs on the Yalu river bridges and not one hit. So, the task was given to the Navy A1 Skyraiders that successfully hit and interdicted the communist supply chain. The Skyraider group were protected from airborne threats by F9F Panther pilots and protected from AAA from F4U Corsair pilots like Lt. Tom Hudner and Ens. Jesse Brown. (They completed the task they were given, what’s depicted in the movie Devotion is made up. The book 📖 is worth a read.) The A7 Corsair II is worth a mention on this topic of Operation Linebacker because A7 pilots of VA 82 were the first ones to take out the important choke point of the Thanh Hoa bridge deploying the walleye television guided bomb. During the Vietnam War the A7 has the distinction of unprecedented air to ground munition accuracy. Thanks again for another video 💯 🇺🇸
i was still working for NGC in te early 90’s when the JDAMs were being tested by the B-2’s. the company was just glad that after the fall of the Soviet Union, the B-2 still had a use in conventional (not nuclear) war. it was also at this point when early design concepts of the B-2’s replacement (B-21) started cropping up among our design teams. fun times.
@@darthvirgin7157 I find it interesting how you contend that there were B-21 designs flying across your desk before the Spirit entered service. Boy? And yes. Please, get over yourself.
SERIOUSLY….do you know how the defense industry works, BOY? i’m just astonished that an ignoramus willing to argue with someone who’s worked more than a DECADE in said industry.
@@darthvirgin7157 It shows just how influential the Northrop designs were on aerospace professionals. You were seeing these effects from your design teams as they were seeing new designs for the replacements for a weapons system before said system went to work for those paying for it. I can die a happy man in the knowledge that Mr Jack Northrup was shown a model of the ATB prior to his death. Great work by all those involved, it's an amazing accomplishment.
Interesting historical view. One could also consider that mass casualties have brought the early end of major conflicts. If the Allies did not use atomic bombs, Japan would not have surrendered so quickly.
With the ability of drones to use a laser range finder to determine the exactly GPS coordinates and then illuminate the target with a laser designator. So hopefully JDAMs are or will hopefully carry both GPS and SAL. If visibility is too limited for the JDAM to see the laser dot, then the round hits the GPS coordinates it was given with a CEP ~5m. But if it is not and the drone is able to put a laser on the target, even if the target is moving, the JDAM can shift its trajectory as soon as it picks up the laser and hit with a CEP of only a meter if the spot illuminated by the laser from the drone (basically the drone operator picks which side of the tank to hit or which window of the house being used as an enemy C&C to go through).
Of course I didn't notice. They're stealth! (normal stealth in the case of the B-2 and B-21, and the "no one that has noticed me is left" kind of stealth for the B-52)
If you want to launch a huge drone swarm , heavy bombers can carry a lot. Then there is also cruise missiles, glide bombs , and soon hypersonic munitions. Bombers not just planes they are platforms.
Actually Alex, you are WRONG. Arthur ‘ Bomber’ Harris, head of RAF Bomber Command very much DID want to lay waste to every single building in Germany because he thought that would get them to surrender even though the Blitz didn’t make the Brits want to surrender.
This is what separates civilized folk from frosty orcs. Choosing to develop a more precise weapon so you can hit the target and not everything around it.
Love the increased accuracy of bombers and how they can be so much more effective (sortie and $-wise) to achieve a goal. Would wide scale bombing still be used in certain circumstances (slowing advancing ground troops, destroying military factories, etc) or will things only stay at the precision level?
2:50 If the basis is laser guided bombs then things didnt change in Desert Storm. While the proliferation of smart weapons certainly came about during Desert Storm, the first operational uses of laser guided bombs was in Vietnam with the BOLT-117 and original Paveway bomb. Tens of thousands of them were dropped prior to even Linebacker II
Hi Alex, I was wondering if you were considering doing a video on the rafale. It’s selling well recently and as an interesting new standard (F5) coming up with interesting features planned (drone management, new radar …)
Yeah, it is, was impressive. GPS jamming is easy. It needs a formidable inertial system to finalize terminal point without GPS, or with GPS spoofing. I like the system, don't get me wrong, but the tech is getting long in the tooth and potentially vulnerable. Thanks for the post, Monsieur.
That opening flyby went right over my house. When I saw that on the Super Bowl, I ran outside and just manage to see them go overhead. It was just incredible to see. B2's look downright fake
As a former field artillery veteran, I feel like aircraft get and got more credit than they have been due historically, due to their flash and awe…. FA has been accurately laying waste to targets for quite some time…. Before smart munitions.
We went from how many bombers to hit the target to how many targets can the bomber hit.
This is is the most succinct and accurate description of the change, and you beat me to it.
Bingo.
I think that is the definition of Quantum leap.
there is also the whole thing about fighters and now cargo aircraft being able to do the job of bombers if needed
@@FELiPES101that is what I was thinking. Do we need heavy bombers if they can hit the target with a single bomb?
Fun fact: The first laser-guided bombs weren't used in the Gulf War. They were first used in Vietnam to destroy the stubborn Dragon's Jaw Bridge.
Fun fact: A Marine created Taco Bell
Yes but the accuracy of laser guidance increased, from 20% in Vietnam to 80% in Desert Storm, to even higher figures now and lower CEPs amongst the Western Nations.
With no change in International Humanitarian Law in the period, it is no wonder why actors like Hamas need to embed with the civilian populace to keep civilian casualty rates somewhat high.
Bear this in mind with Amnesty's report today and the criticism of the supply of JDAM kits.
BOLT-117🤪
@@EmsThaBreaks441 'International Humanitarian Law" is an absolute myth. The sooner we realize that then the sooner we can bring an end to a particular campaign.
@@hussar843 GBU-1B? The Armour company next to my Infantry regiment were named "The Hussars".
I did notice, as a 76-year-old man that heard the stories from my family about WW2, and serving in Vietnam myself, the changes were like night and day, but like a wise young man once said, "Just because technology is improving doesn't mean our humanity is." ~John Lovell (Warrior poet)
That quote is absolutely true but darker than most will realize
@@TheBigSki Amen!
🫡
Thank you sir. Genuinely.
I served on a carrier during the Vietnam war in the early 70's. On my second deployment in 1972 I saw a new type of bomb being loaded on a F-4 that I never seen before and someone told me it was a new type of bomb that was laser guided. I later heard about a bridge in N. Vietnam that was repeatedly bomb unsuccessfully, but the first attempt with the laser guided destroyed it.
When I learn about the tech the US gov had during Vietnam, it makes me wonder what they have now. The satellite tech was amazing back then
You're referring to the Dragon's Jaw Bridge in N Vietnam.
That must have seemed like something out of science fiction at the time.
@@adammetzger4182 Actually the laser guidance units were fairly simple then, they used the control unit from a Shrike missile which was pretty simple. A laser seeker head was attached to the front of it.
@@AndrewJeffersonCotter In the back of an old arms room, I found the original Vietnam-era manual for the TVS-5 night vision scope for a crew served weapon, still classified as SECRET.
Its pretty simple to understand. One F-15E can carry up 16 GBU-38s while a B-2 can carry to 80
Effectively 5 F-15Es or 1 B-2
More the point, bombers can mix and match their payloads.
The B-1B for example can carry a mix of GBU-31s/39 plus AGM-154 and AGM-158s
But most important is that bombers combat radius is far greater than strike fighters
They can fly thousands of miles or orbit for hours without the need to hit the tanker
F-15E, F-16s and F-18 have to top off hourly
Adding conventional strike capabilities to their bombers was the smartest thing the USAF ever did
A B2 can also fly from the US...to almost any place on the planet...and back in a single sortie.
@@oskar6661
Not only fly but fly lundetected and only needs jamming support once its crossed into enemy airspace
And in the modern world of BVR air-to-air, loading up a B-2 with AIM-120s would probably give you the most effective air superiority platform in the world
@@BreandanAnraoi Just a few F-15EX can carry that same amount of AIM-120s, with stealth and detecting, tracking and targeting support from F-35.
@@dallasyap3064 sure but "one" is better than "a few", and with much longer range too. B-21 even better with integration etc
The JDAM conversion kit is an amazing idea, adding smarts to dumb bombs that would otherwise be discarded. I find its accuracy amazing!
Of course, other countries have adopted this idea, but the goal of reducing damage to non-military areas remains aspirational.
Aspirational for the U.S, not for Russia. Russia deliberately targets hospitals, children's hospitals, schools, playgrounds and residential areas.
It’s both ethical and logistically sound.
brought to you by the one and only, Boeing Company
CEP Miss Distance in OAF was actually about 2.65m.
With a 2,000lb/5,000lb munition, that's pretty good.
Also, the original IAMs were not JDAMs but GAMs. Or GPS Aided Munitions. GBU-36/37. Dropped from a custom GATS or GPS Aided Targeting System that took specific advantage of the B-2's internal nav accuracy (APQ-181, dual RLG INS) and covert star tracker/GPS fused offboard system to drop custom bombs.
Actual JDAMs came later, in the sandbox.
That seems oddly specific.
There used to be a say, "when the last B-2 is delivered to Davis Monthan, its crew will be picked up by a B-52."
The B-1 and B-2 will be retired within 10 years. When the last B-21 is delivered to Davis Monthan, its crew will be picked up by a B-52J.
I don't know if the B-1 or B-2 will be retired because air combat is evolving. Airframes are expensive. Upgrades are cheap. Think of this in modern terms. In 1990 a Chevy pick-up could be purchased for less than $10K. In 2024 the high end pick-ups are going for over $110K. It's just cheaper to swap out engines and have USAF airmen do maintenance. Also, there is one HUGE torpedo in the water that may kill any more upgrades or aircraft purchases. The aggregate Federal Debt is *$36 Trillion* dollars. The US Voters made some terrible mistakes in voting for spend thrift politicians. In 2025 the bill comes due.
B-1B is being readied out to 2040. Current fleet is at about 12,000 hours Testing the fuselage and wings out to 27,000 and 28,000 hours and are developing fixes for the fleet. They just cut down to 45 in the fleet after retiring birds that required $10- 30 million just to remain flightworthy. .The assembly line at Tinker get 2 birds every month. Each bird gets about 5500 hours of work. These will be around to see B-21 reach FOC. They can carry too many JASSM/LRASM (24) to retire that capability.
@@Easy-Eight That doesn't work for the B-2. Modularity was not a concern when the aircraft was designed, and the entire air frame needs to be disassembled to maintain stealth capabilities just when certain parts are swapped out. Making upgrades to the airframe are therefore, significantly more expensive than you would expect. So a massive part of the push for the next gen bomber is to actually be CHEAPER in the long run than the B-2 spirit is. Comparing the cutting edge in stealth aeronautical technology to a pick up truck is ludicrous.
@@MistaOppritunity *Comparing the cutting edge in stealth aeronautical technology to a pick up truck is ludicrous.* Let me give you a dose of reality: by the time Trump takes over by 20 January 2025 the aggregate Federal debt will be *$37 Trillion* . The USA is on it's way to having insolvent currency. I'm saying the USA better figure out a way to rebuild its existing fleet because if China dumps its T-bills at a discount then you get to see currency collapse. Then again you may never heard of Weimar Germany. The USAF d*mn well does not need the B-21.
I love how short your videos are. You say what you need to say, and nothing more. You don't grind every video to 30+ minutes like a lot of guys do. I really appreciate this.
I concur.
I generally avoid videos over 10-12min as too unfocused and talkative.
Thats all 90s tech, everybody is aware of all that by now. The real evolution is the maturity of glide bombs, air-launched cruise missiles, and sensor fusion technology. When paired with a stealth fighter or other such platform as a spotter, bombers can now deliver presision payloads en masse against targets from hundreds of miles away.
Yep. The new mantra is “can we deliver a bomb without a bomber and still hit a target with the same accuracy?”
The media often talk about the cost of precision weapons, but they fail to account for the cost of the other option, area bombing with multiple aircraft, that increases the weapons cost, fuel costs, lives lost and the risk to your aircrew, the more aircraft in the sky, the better target they become, and even if in a massed raid your loss rate was only 2%, that is still 2% of your fleet and 2% of your precious human resource. It costs about $35,000 (average across the range) for a JDAM kit, and a Mk 84 900kg (2000Ib) "dumb" bomb comes in at around the same price - so a Mk 84 2000Ib (900kg) JDAM costs around $70,000. If you hit your target with a single bomb, that is significantly cheaper than 20 aircraft dropping 320 (20 x 16 bombs each - ~$11.2Million), plus the costs of the bombers - $2 Billion each - so 20 of them is a cost risk of $40 billion plus they have 2 crew each - so 40 aircrew lives at risk. Assuming that only 1 is shot down - your cost has rocketed from risking 1 aircraft and 2 crew, plus fuel and weapon, to an actual real cost of $2 billion, plus ordnance, plus fuel plus 2 crew - Intelligent systems not only save on overall strategic and tactical costs, but they also reduce strategic and tactical risks.
Plus they have a higher success rate and lower collateral damage
You could add further that bombers evolved into air support for ground operations. The B-1 was used as a “bomb truck” over Afghanistan, hours on station with an airborne arsenal.
I've been at Barksdale AFB, home of half the B-52 fleet, and now home to Air Force Global Strike Command for close to 18 of the last 24 years. Believe me I've noticed and been part of some of these changes! I can actually hear one of the Buffs taking off now while I sit here typing this!
I left Barksdale 19 years ago. The ACMs were still in service when I was there.
@@Ryan_Christopher Wow, that's pretty cool. Did they load up the same as the ALCM? 12 under wings and 8 on the rotary?
What's not to like? Greater accuracy + fewer bombs required + more complete distruction of targets + fewer airplanes needed per target + fewer air crews put in harms way + less collateral damage and deaths = lower cost to us. That last part seems cold to say, but it is important.
Yes, advanced technology can minimize damage to unwanted targets but can’t 100% avoid it.
Weapons can miss, bad intelligence on a target, or debris from a shot down target landing in a civilian zone are all still things that happen.
Just because technology can improve to fight a cleaner war doesn’t escape the reality that war of any kind is hell.
Very true words.
I noticed immediately. Gulf War 1 was the first conflict I saw ('78 baby). When we went from 'planes per target' to 'targets per plane,' it was a gamechanger. Add stealth for true 'glad it's on our side' terror.
And modern people can't comprehend older military tactics, so they see carpet bombing as deliberate civilian massacres in all situations. (Firebombing Tokyo, etc. is why I mentioned "in all situations". Those WERE terror attacks.) They don't accept we couldn't have done precision strategic bombing before the late Vietnam war, and therefore limited casualties.
As an old SAC weather officer, dropping dumb bombs into jetstreams is just nuts. But that is why BUFFs could haul 51 or even 108 general purpose aerial bombs back then.
@@ARGONUAT Big Belly mods on the BUF? Did you do any work with Nuclear Effects such as fallout related to wind. Just curious if that was part of your SAC training purview.
@@hoghogwild Yup and yup. All theoretical forecasting as the truth was, we would all be obliterated by then.
@@ARGONUAT Thank you for the response. That sounds very interesting.
@@hoghogwild As a 23-year old brand new 2LT right out of college, it was somewhat of a mind blowing experience. The older sergeants and officers kind of looked at us with bemused experience as we wrangled, trying to figure the data out for this type of forecasting. The vets knew we would never find out if war went hot because the Russian nuclear weapons worked back then and we would have been obliterated within 15 minutes of first launch.
I was staying in a building Northeast of Barksdale on a post Tornado outbreak recovery mission. Buff has a Defiant sound that will wake you up. Thank you for your service.
Yes we noticed. we noticed during the first gulf war over 30 years ago, that instead of hitting anywhere within 5 miles of the target, with 1 bomb you can hit within 5 meters of the target
I remember seeing on CNN when I was 7 or so the footage of a bomb going into a window.
I was born in 1981 and have seen all of this bomber tech transform. The apex was being at my big sister’s Air Force Academy graduation in 1997, the Air Force doing a fly-by, and watching as a B-2 Bomber flies over me at age 16. It was magnificant!
During Linebacker 2 the B-52s did drop a LOT of dumb bombs. But over in Thailand the F-4 Phantoms were equipped with camera guided 2000 pound bombs. When it was fun powering up all the avionics including the cameras just so I could visually track a security policeman walking in front of the revetment where the aircraft was parked. 19 years old wearing 2 stripes.
It’s crazy to think of the changes from payload, accuracy and blast radius from WW2 to today. What a single B2 or B52 can do compared to B17s.
Back in the day, I worked on building parts for the electronics in some of those systems, and I'm proud to have done so.
just got home from work, got my dinner ready, sat down and boom sandbox posted a minute ago
keep up the good work
same bro, just got me a publix sub. life is good
5:15 me in the toilet
And the bomber is almost certainly evolving again. Bombers flying over the Pacific with dozens of drone wingmen as a payload. Once released, those drones being controlled by members of the Bomber crew.
It is great to see a video to put all this perspective. We focus on the minutia and critique them. The big picture taken as a whole, what we have acompished is amazing
This video was out of date 20 years ago. Bombs will now only be used while being attached to drones, these drones are going to use navigation based on the location of the stars so they will work when gps is jammed, and they will find their target without a human pilot. They may also use the earth's magnetic field or any other useful technology to determine their location without relying on out dated systems like gps or lasers.
Another informative and great show. Keep up the good work brother. Looking forward to more great shows in the future!
I enjoy all of your videos. I still strongly encourage a series on what each phase of modern warfare could look like today. Each step has advanced so much that there's enough material to do a lengthy series, starting with the first acts, which would likely be eliminating the SAM threats, then targeting communications, then command and control, electronic warefare and how awacs and growlers work, etc. It could be amazing, comparing WWII strategies and methods, to desert storm to what war with China would likely look like.
and due to higher accuracy, we don't need as much explosive, and thus we get teh Small Diameter Bomb. And most bombing missions are now flown by Fighters rather than dedicated bombers.
And those guided tiny bombs are excellent for close air support. In Afghanistan, the B1 bomber was doing killer work at close air support using smaller JDAM's. Arguably better than the A-10. The SDB's will allow our massive fleet of strike fighters to do the same, even relatively close to friendly troops. The sensors and electronics on an F-35 would let it drop an SDB extremely close to friendlies relatively safely.
That might be a problem when bombing factories, since a lot of the equipment is fairly heavily built. A big explosion can warp the stuff it doesn't outright destroy. A small explosion might only destroy the one machine and maybe stuff near it.
This would be an issue, if - for example - you want to destroy some chip factories in Taiwan
@@recoil53 not at all. most things like chip factories, have highly delicate machinery, and when teh roof and such collapses and fires break out, they are damaged even further.
Even small bombs with high explosives do a lot of damage and throw a lot of shrapnel.
Also, there are numerous other ways to stop a factory, even without striking the factory directly. can't make anything if the machines and resources never make it to the factory. And look at Russia, with their lack of circuits and chips, makes it difficult to finish aircraft and weapons. They import that stuff, and so with sanctions they can build the mechanical hulks, but less the critical electronics, making them useless.
But the US has never had trouble taking out an enemy military in modern times. and we've rarely even gone after factories at all in modern conflicts. Modern weapons are too complex to build quickly, and so by the time the US lightning war is over in the first few weeks, there is so much destruction and chaos, that new production is the last thing on the enemy's mind. When we can destroy in 2weeks what it takes them 6-12months to produce, they'll never keep up.
Precision strikes, with minimally sized weapons gives best results. A fully loaded F-15E could theoretically carry something like 50-60 Small Diameter Bombs! That's a LOT of targets for one fighter bomber. And if that F-15E orbits at 40k ft while striking, the bombs can glide something like 50miles to reach their targets. Being able to send One fighter to strike 50+ individual targets in a single sortie from 0-50miles away is CRAZY! And such a strike would be minimal in cost compared to sending 10x F-15Es with 4x 2000lb bombs each, and actually be more effective (40 targets while risking 10 aircraft at 0-2miles from target vs 50+ targets while risking 1 aircraft at 0-50miles from target).
And by the way, I've received CAS from A-10, B-1, F-15E, and more in actual combat. Just so that you know where some of my opinions and understanding are coming from.
@@Elthenar I personally received Danger Close air support from a B-1 in Afghanistan. 38x 500lb bombs dropped within 200-500yds of our position one night. I'll never forget that.
I also received CAS from the A-10s of the 23rd Flying Tigers. Close up gun attacks. Nothing like seeing an A-10 attack, and it truly does put the enemy on notice. The enemy never sees the B-1 coming, but they see the A-10,a nd that is more effective than people realize at pushing back enemy attacks. Some times a show of force is required.
"The sensors and electronics on an F-35 would let it drop an SDB extremely close to friendlies relatively safely."
same for the F-15E and F-15EX, which can theoretically carry up to 50-60 SDBs at once. and SDBs have a potential glide range after drop of up to 50miles to target, allowing significant standoff from the targets.
The F-15E would orbit overhead in Afghanistan and just wait for calls for air support. You could spot them if you looked hard enough, just flying circles overhead, waiting.
In Iraq my unit got CAS mostly from AV-8B, F-18, AH-1, UH-1, AH-64....(with the Marines)
In Afghanistan my unit got it mostly from Kiowa, AH-64, A-10, B-1, and F-15E... (with the Navy Seabees)
SDB gives more flexibility and options to the fighter community to strike enemy targets.
I'm a former USAF weapon's tech who went over to US Army field artillery. JDAMS was the game changer but there had been LGBs, infrared, and TV optics for munitions That's not even counting the old US Army Pershing II that had ungodly accuracy (not quite necessary for a nuke). The trouble was expense. Also, the carrying aircraft had to be extensively modified with old analog technology. The aircraft that changed the game was the old A-7D which introduced iron bombs to precision accuracy. The F-16 and F-18 were the next level. In the Field Artillery they taught us that few targets can survive an absolute direct hit. Even an M-1 tank will be knocked out of action by the correct application of a mere 25 pound bomb on the engine deck. The USAF SDB guided bomb makes any good fighter into a "strategic" bomber.
Linebacker 2. That's the op my dad was on. Worked as a crew chief and flew on planes after they were fixed - pilots wouldn't fly the planes after repairs unless the crew chief was willing to fly on it. I asked him one time "Dad what does FLAK look like?" His answer was "I don't remember, I was too busy watching for SAM launches". He suffers from health issues as a result of agent orange exposure - they sprayed the perimeter of his base. He and his crew had to make an emergency run to one of the airports in south vietnam after a B52 made an emergency landing. The bomber had had it's fuel tanks shredded by AAA. So he and his crew had to fit a fuel bladder and hook it up to bypass the damage and repair other damage to get it flying again - while under mortar fire.
You're simply the best. Better than all the rest!
Grandpa Buff is the Man!
The only reason I noticed is because I grew up with these Air Force programs.
I was at Edwards Air Force Base for the B-1A, the B-1B, the B-2, and a top secret electronic warfare B-52, nicknamed Ghost Buster with a pink pac-man ghost on the pilot side.
The F-117 was the reason that we went to the Mojave Desert.
I was stationed at Edwards. 98-02
Edwards AFB from 89-98. I wouldn't wish that long of a stay on anyone.
@mpeugeot Hell naw? I, and most everyone in my flight, loved it.
Don't get me wrong, I managed to have a blast at Edwards, but if you want to stick me somewhere remote for 9 years I would take Okinawa or Guam first! I spent a total of 5 years between those two.
Well, the "laying waste to a whole area" thing never completely went away. Although there are not many tools left in inventory to do that.
Once in a while, that's exactly the goal. Once in a while, you don't really know 'exactly' where a target is, and you gotta flatten a square mile.
Or, less savory or PC... it could be done to "make a point".
Also, I think everybody noticed ;)
I remember the first day of that operation. Young Airman me showed up to base for the day and there were tons of news trucks and reporters outside the front gate. Most of the B2s were in the air doing patterns. I remember thinking "WTF, did one of them crash or something?" Only after I got into my shop were we briefed on what was going on.
I think the B-1B is perfect for being a middle truck. The F-35 picking targets and data link the info back to the B-1B to launch and F-22 protecting the B-1B. It's got the legs and ability to do the mission.
B2. B1 needs to be retired before the B52 does. Cost per sortie/target is way too high.
We have several stealth bombers larger than the one you mentioned.
I was in the Navy from 1971 - 1981. My first WestPac cruise was 1972 - 1973 while Vietnam was still a hot war. We had laser bomb guidance units at that time. I know this for a fact because it was part of my job to test them before they were attached to the bombs.
Very very well said!
I often think that a replacement for the B-1B needs to happen in some form in order to support troops on the ground in situations far away when something needs to get there fast and you can't just send a new hypersonic missile. Maybe future fighters or supersonic drones will fill that role but I question if they'll have the range for every mission like some in Afghanistan that saved American lives. I'm curious what the solution will be.
The B21 raider 🤔
The B-21 will be able to do that mission while loitering overhead for 10+ hours and provide ISR info to. Acting as a comm relay is another feature that is possible for it and other airframes.
@@Matt.Willoughby Aside from a much smaller payload limiting the kind and amount of munitions it can deliver, the B-21 is also (probably) subsonic-only. It will not "get there fast".
@CptJistuce get there fast enough will have to be fast enough.
I like to believe that the USA has secret procurement and has plenty of F22, B1, F117 and so on stashed away somewhere. The black holes in military budgets and dark money, trillions of dollars a year must go somewhere useful. I hope Trump doesn't mess America up too much 😔
I would like to see a modernized variant of a B1 Lancer built from scratch with same characteristics but able to fly faster an carry a little bit more payload we definitely need a aircraft that can be used if ever needed for unconventional warfare and targets that we wouldn't need to pull out a stealth bomber for. similar to what the B1 is able to do now but built with modern materials and Technology and have low running cost and easier to maintain
I truly wonder what the Bomber Mafia of the 1930s would think of today’s heavies. Even Curtis LeMay I think would be astounded by what even his old B-52Hs can do today!
As any reader of Dale Brown's "Flight of the Old Dog" can tell you..."I told you so." I still think that the Raider should be designated as F/B-21 not just B-21. Semper Fi!
Why the need to designate it FB-21 when there are other stealth fighters available
@@dallasyap3064...but what other platform offers the flexibility and utility that the Raider will at this level of tech? None. It is the tip of the spear.
@@pastorrich7436 It's a bomber. They are fighters, they can maneuver.
What a great series, my brother and I enjoyed them all. He worked in the post office, I was A BUFF pilot, Ds and Hs.
@@pastorrich7436 It is a heavy bomber, it will deliver bombs and missiles like any other bomber.
Can’t wait for the KC/RQ/E/F/A/B-21
😂
That almost sounds like some new woke freak😂😂😂
HEY!!! That's my password!
Guess I'll have to change it again.
That's ... Cargo, Recon, EW, Fighter, Attack, Bomber?
@@Appletank8 The "Homer" of military aviation
You left out the use of laser guided bombs in the Vietnam War to take out the Thanh Hoa bridge, which had resisted numerous attacks prior to that.
I actually have that in my longer draft when this was going to be a full episode of AirPower! Valid inclusion, for sure.
@@SandboxxAppI wouldn’t mind the longer version.
My father was part of linebacker 2. He claims the B 52 shot down three migs and an F4 with the tail gun.
But I have read otherwise. I wonder what the real story is.
The real story is a 1 verified mig shot down with the quad 50 cal tail guns. Could it have been more? Possibly. Considering only the US flew F4 in Vietnam that part of the story is most likely false.
@alvyca the official story may not always be the real story
Shouldn't be that hard to find someone else who was actually there
According to Air Force documents (as well as the crew who flew it) yes 2 B-52s shot down about 3 MIGs during 72. One of these incidents was witnessed by crew of another US aircraft (I'm not sure was it another separate B-52 or some other fighter plane).
@dallasyap3064 pops gave the impression the F4 that was shot down was swept under the rug.
Apparently the radar controlled tail guns didn't discriminate
I completely agree!
As an old crew chief, I had to come here and say the pictures of the JADAM are upside-down. 😂😂😂
Your hooks are on the bottom.
Still love your videos. Keep it up.
The use of GPS is just the latest addition in the spectrum of precision guidance tech to enter into widespread use. The ability to precision-strike targets has been sought by air powers across the globe, since at least the 1930's, when the first dive-bombers entered service in different countries' air forces.
Loving the new upload schedule 😉
"Didn't want to lay waste to great swathes of a nation" You have heard of Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris, haven't you?
And an idea starts with a single person with a thought.
USAF did a test where one aircraft dropped a whole bunch of 500 pound JDAMs and hit point targets representing the various items on an airfield target complex.
The change started during the Vietnam war.
There was a value in laying waste to huge portions of enemy cities. It’s awful, but it’s hard to conduct an insurgency when you have no food, water or fuel
@Sandboxx - Another game-changing development for bombers is their ability to fire air-to-air missiles and cruise missiles with ranges of 600 to 2,000 miles. Theoretically, a B-2 Spirit could deploy 300-400 Hero-120 loitering munitions (effective against armor, infantry groups, or logistics), each with a range of 40-60 miles, assuming sufficient AI or communications capacity to control them. Additionally, a B-2 could potentially launch around 1,000 small FPV quadcopters, each carrying a grenade-level explosive payload, or even 50,000-100,000 tiny Black Hornet drones equipped with 3g of explosives for anti-personnel use. These possible examples show the versatility of today's modern bombers. And that's just the bombers...A C5 Galaxy could potentially carry and launch 950K Black Hornet Drones at once...just in case you needed to be able to clear some trenches of personnel - across an entire country. Hmmm...We probably need to start building more production capacity to make more and less expensive drones.
Furthermore, the bombing mission is splitting into stand-off/loiter attack roles, and the contested airspace penetration missions. The former can be accomplished with cargo planes, while only the latter requires a dedicated bomber aircraft. And dedicated bomber aircraft are branching out into the long range intercept and air to air arsenal ship mission. The B-21 will serve as a penetration bomber for itches that even standoff ordinance can't scratch. In the short term, C-130s and C-17s will fulfill the stand-off/loiter role, overwhelming targets within contested airspace with swarms of cruise missiles, or orbiting a low intensity battlefield, providing close air support with hundreds of small, precision guided bombs. Eventually, they, and the venerable BUFF, will be replaced with a larger blended wing aircraft that quadruples as a bomber, strategic airlifter, tanker, and airborne surveillance craft in that mission.
Yet ANOTHER excellent video. I can't help but realize though... Civilian vs military target defining is a grey area when the civilian population is supporting the military war effort.
Excuse me. Precision munitions started at the end of Vietnam.
guided by Bubba
We have different definitions of precision, apparently. Completely different class now.
Technically the Germans in ww2 had precision guided weapons….the Fritz I believe
If you wanna get technical, kamikazes were the first precision munition
@@ButtThuckI like this comment. + username 😂
I think the more notable change for me is when I saw smart bombs going through windows in the Gulf War. It blew me away.
It blew the bad guys away too 😂
Seeing those bombers fly above a stadium is kinda scary.
Loving the absence of a long ass ad read
“Which window would you like that bomb to go through?”
Nice presentation.
Man 2 vids in a week and it isn't even Friday yet.
We are truly blessed!
Laser-guided bombs were actually first employed in the Vietnam War, though to a far lesser extent; only in the Gulf War was it used more widely and actively. Bomb technology has indeed advanced a lot. Now the US has the Rapid Dragon system that basically turns C-130s and C-17s into airborne missile launchers (firing AGM-158 cruise missiles).
Absolutely mind-blowing how precision technology transformed bombers from “shotguns” to “sniper rifles”! It’s incredible to see the impact on reducing civilian casualties. What do you all think the next big innovation in military aviation will be?
Well stated
Wow. Thanks, guns!
2:41 "....then in 1991 ...things began to shift..." Correct me if I am wrong but the F111s that went into Lybia in 1986 used self designating LGBs. And in 1972 the last F4E's in SEA were capable of shooting TISEO guided fire and forget Maverick ground attack missiles. It started much before 1991.
You're right. But Desert Storm is the war where LGBs was first widely and actively employed. Just like how helicopters were first used in combat in 1944 during ww2, but it wasn't exactly revolutionized or widely used until US involvement in Vietnam.
@@dallasyap3064 Like I said. "It started much before 1991."
Right On
I still like the B-one…. B-two just isn’t have the same meaning😂😂
And during the Korean War is another time when the Navy rose to the occasion. The USAF B29s dropped many bombs on the Yalu river bridges and not one hit. So, the task was given to the Navy A1 Skyraiders that successfully hit and interdicted the communist supply chain. The Skyraider group were protected from airborne threats by F9F Panther pilots and protected from AAA from F4U Corsair pilots like Lt. Tom Hudner and Ens. Jesse Brown. (They completed the task they were given, what’s depicted in the movie Devotion is made up. The book 📖 is worth a read.)
The A7 Corsair II is worth a mention on this topic of Operation Linebacker because A7 pilots of VA 82 were the first ones to take out the important choke point of the Thanh Hoa bridge deploying the walleye television guided bomb. During the Vietnam War the A7 has the distinction of unprecedented air to ground munition accuracy.
Thanks again for another video 💯 🇺🇸
Targeting pods revolutionized bombing and gave the F-14 Tomcat a new lease on life.
i was still working for NGC in te early 90’s when the JDAMs were being tested by the B-2’s.
the company was just glad that after the fall of the Soviet Union, the B-2 still had a use in conventional (not nuclear) war.
it was also at this point when early design concepts of the B-2’s replacement (B-21) started cropping up among our design teams.
fun times.
B-2 entered service in 1997.
@@hoghogwild
so you’re implying there were no working B-2’s flying before they entered service?
do you know how the defense industry works, boy?
@@darthvirgin7157 I find it interesting how you contend that there were B-21 designs flying across your desk before the Spirit entered service. Boy? And yes. Please, get over yourself.
SERIOUSLY….do you know how the defense industry works, BOY?
i’m just astonished that an ignoramus willing to argue with someone who’s worked more than a DECADE in said industry.
@@darthvirgin7157 It shows just how influential the Northrop designs were on aerospace professionals. You were seeing these effects from your design teams as they were seeing new designs for the replacements for a weapons system before said system went to work for those paying for it. I can die a happy man in the knowledge that Mr Jack Northrup was shown a model of the ATB prior to his death. Great work by all those involved, it's an amazing accomplishment.
Interesting historical view. One could also consider that mass casualties have brought the early end of major conflicts. If the Allies did not use atomic bombs, Japan would not have surrendered so quickly.
With the ability of drones to use a laser range finder to determine the exactly GPS coordinates and then illuminate the target with a laser designator. So hopefully JDAMs are or will hopefully carry both GPS and SAL. If visibility is too limited for the JDAM to see the laser dot, then the round hits the GPS coordinates it was given with a CEP ~5m. But if it is not and the drone is able to put a laser on the target, even if the target is moving, the JDAM can shift its trajectory as soon as it picks up the laser and hit with a CEP of only a meter if the spot illuminated by the laser from the drone (basically the drone operator picks which side of the tank to hit or which window of the house being used as an enemy C&C to go through).
When they put SM-6 missiles on the B-21s it will be an impressive weapon.
And now with GPS being jammed and spoofed we're getting back to square one..
Hell yes!
😎👍
Of course I didn't notice. They're stealth!
(normal stealth in the case of the B-2 and B-21, and the "no one that has noticed me is left" kind of stealth for the B-52)
If you want to launch a huge drone swarm , heavy bombers can carry a lot. Then there is also cruise missiles, glide bombs , and soon hypersonic munitions. Bombers not just planes they are platforms.
Fighters make noise, bombers make policy
Actually Alex, you are WRONG. Arthur ‘ Bomber’ Harris, head of RAF Bomber Command very much DID want to lay waste to every single building in Germany because he thought that would get them to surrender even though the Blitz didn’t make the Brits want to surrender.
I noticed!
(I worked for the Air Force in the munitions career field)
This is what separates civilized folk from frosty orcs. Choosing to develop a more precise weapon so you can hit the target and not everything around it.
Love the increased accuracy of bombers and how they can be so much more effective (sortie and $-wise) to achieve a goal. Would wide scale bombing still be used in certain circumstances (slowing advancing ground troops, destroying military factories, etc) or will things only stay at the precision level?
I noticed. Hell, I was there.
2:50 If the basis is laser guided bombs then things didnt change in Desert Storm. While the proliferation of smart weapons certainly came about during Desert Storm, the first operational uses of laser guided bombs was in Vietnam with the BOLT-117 and original Paveway bomb. Tens of thousands of them were dropped prior to even Linebacker II
Hi Alex, I was wondering if you were considering doing a video on the rafale. It’s selling well recently and as an interesting new standard (F5) coming up with interesting features planned (drone management, new radar …)
Yeah, it is, was impressive. GPS jamming is easy. It needs a formidable inertial system to finalize terminal point without GPS, or with GPS spoofing. I like the system, don't get me wrong, but the tech is getting long in the tooth and potentially vulnerable. Thanks for the post, Monsieur.
That opening flyby went right over my house. When I saw that on the Super Bowl, I ran outside and just manage to see them go overhead. It was just incredible to see. B2's look downright fake
I’m glad someone else noticed than me ! Lol
Its always been the goal to limit collateral damage, so to anyone who's even minutely interested in aviation has already figured this out.
As a former field artillery veteran, I feel like aircraft get and got more credit than they have been due historically, due to their flash and awe…. FA has been accurately laying waste to targets for quite some time…. Before smart munitions.
thumbs up! Great Script. Educational. News Worthy. short and sweet. OH.... I guess that means I should SUBSCRIBE.;
Laser guided bombs were first used in Vietnam
Narrator: They had in fact, noticed.
My my how the times have changed...
And now with the advent of Quantum Positioning systems, the targeting systems can't be jammed or spoofed.
JDAM on battlefield 2042 is pretty fulfilling to use. But not nearlt enough damage