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Iran and the stealth bomber - Ted King - 03-22-2013
This is a question that I'm hoping cbelt or someone else here will know the answer to: Is the B-2 stealth bomber capable of getting into the Iranian territory where they have key nuclear facilities and damaging them sufficiently using conventional munitions that would minimize collateral damage to set back their nuclear bomb efforts? (That is, assuming that the Iranians have such facilities buried really deeply underground.)
Re: Iran and the stealth bomber - cbelt3 - 03-22-2013
Ted-
I'm not sure. A stealth bomber is NOT completely invisible. It merely has a miniscule effective radar cross section because it absorbs most of the radar signals that are sent at it. B2's can be detected by:
1- Tossing enough megawatts up there to get a return. Of course all birdies in the sky will get roasted. Iranian kittehs will rejoice. Some land based and naval radars put out enough power to do it, but state of the art sensors are required. Iran has lots of state of the art gear (thanks. Russia and France).
2- Using a complex network of frequency agile transmitters and sensitive receivers to create a rolling 'picture'. One test showed that a city full of interconnected cellular telephones and towers could be used to create a stealth-defeating 'radar' system. Really. It was cool.
3- The bomber radiates Infrared --- pointed mostly upwards, and it's masked by the engine exhaust baffles. But it produces a 'warm air trail'. Going into the desert at night produces IR lines that point right at the bomber with sensitive IR detection equipment.
Conventional munitions would 'bunker buster' weapons which are penetrating smart bombs. FAE explosives can also be used to 'crack' the ground above the bunker, and then follow up with a penetrator. Tactics and approaches vary.. you can bet there's a few copies that have been built over the year in bombing ranges in various parts of the world for testing. Unfortunately, bunker busters and FAE's are damn big weapons... FAE's cannot be carried by B-2's... they are carried by C130 Combat Talon II aircraft (at least they were when they were used in Desert Storm... I spoke to one of the pilots). The B2 can carry a few bunker buster bombs.
However... tactical doctrine says if you're going to send in a manned strike, you suppress the hell out of the anti aircraft belt before you do. Only unmanned (drones, cruise missiles) attacks go in 'clean' without AA supression prep. The model works like this:
1- You send in drones and cruise missiles and plow a set of air lanes by destroying all AA sites, and well as decapitate the command and control of the enemy's military.
2- You send in stealth aircraft for the harder targets, again in the AA and C&C.
3- Once you can fly with impunity, you send in the heavies like B52's and C130-CTII's to drop the heavy iron on the targets.
4- Then the Marines drive in with white paint and paint lines on the nicely flattened new 'roads'.
Ed: spelling.
Re: Iran and the stealth bomber - OWC Jamie - 03-22-2013
this really doesn't seem unrealistic to me
Re: Iran and the stealth bomber - cbelt3 - 03-22-2013
billb- Thanks. Yep, Shock and Awe. Except... most people don't realize just how big Iran is. A lot more territory to overfly than Iraq. But I would expect most of the initial strike would be unmanned.
The ballistic missile defenses.. yup. Lots of Patriot batteries and THAADS batteries.
What's not included is Israel's reaction if Iran starts lobbing missiles at them, AND one hits. The gloves would come off and the nukes would start popping, unless the US convinces them that we'll pound the Iranians flat in retaliation.
I expect that Israel was ready to blow bits of Baghdad away when they were tossing Scuds at Tel Aviv.
Re: Iran and the stealth bomber - OWC Jamie - 03-22-2013
The retaliatory missile lobbing doesn't have to be nuclear.
I sailed through the Suez and Hormuz last Oct/Nov. The manpower and bristling armaments and hardware were phenomenal and what I saw was supposedly not even the tip of the iceberg. When you look at it all as money that could be supporting the world's poor and underpriveleged rather than protecting national resources and "power" it's maddeningly sad.
Re: Iran and the stealth bomber - SteveG - 03-22-2013
I don't know what the Israeli nuclear doctrine is, but I'm sure it would take more than a few, or even more, conventional missiles hitting for them to use atomics.
Re: Iran and the stealth bomber - cbelt3 - 03-22-2013
G-
I don't think anyone outside the IDF knows Israel's policy. They are still not officially a 'nuclear power'. I'd expect it would be a response to WMD attacks, not just explosives.
Re: Iran and the stealth bomber - Bill in NC - 03-22-2013
Iran has spread their nuclear program around to too many sites to hope for airstrikes to make a dent.
They learned that lesson from Iraq, which saw its under-construction nuclear reactor (for plutonium production) cratered into debris by Israel.
Not to mention any such airstrike would be an act of war.
Re: Iran and the stealth bomber - Acer - 03-22-2013
The first one to go nuclear, no matter the provocation, will have a PR problem that will follow them for centuries. I don't think Israel would want that if it can at all be avoided.
Re: Iran and the stealth bomber - rjmacs - 03-22-2013
Acer wrote:
The first one to go nuclear, no matter the provocation, will have a PR problem that will follow them for centuries. I don't think Israel would want that if it can at all be avoided.
IIRC, the U.S. was the "first one to go nuclear." How's our PR on that, a few decades later?