- Apr 12, 2004
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Hi everybody!
I have had a very hectic couple of weeks. I flew over 60 hours in the last 8 days (ending Monday before Thanksgiving) in support of Resultant Fury.
Resultant Fury was meant to display our most recent capabilities that built upon Billy Mitchell's exercises that sank several battleships between 1921 and 1923. Our job was to be the first to sink a moving surface ship from an aircraft.
The first day was meant to showcase our ability to limit collateral damage and to be precise from high altitude. We had 3 sets of boats each consisting of a 35 foot tug boat with a 25 foot target boat tethered 12 feet behind. The boats were moving at 15 knots. Two B-52s were tasked to strike two of the towed boats from 29,000 feet with 1 2,000lb JDAM each.
The second day was designed to show our ability to sink large battleships from high altitude while moving. The USS Schenectady, a 522 foot landing craft, was set adrift in quick moving currents off the coast of Hawaii. Two B-52s were tasked to drop 5 2,000lb JDAM each and a third B-52 was tasked to drop 4 500lb LGBs.
I flew the practice day and Strike Day 1, where we struck the 25 foot boats. We struck each of them within 7 seconds of each other. The Navy thought the boats would sink within 20-30 minutes.
Our JDAM struck the moving targets without damaging the unmanned tug boats and obliterated the targets. There was nothing left to sink by the time the smoke cleared.
Two other crews from my squadron struck the Schenectady the next day. We dropped the JDAM on the boat and it began sinking immediately as a large hole was blown in the side. It sank within the hour. The 3rd B-52 struck the superstructure and sent it flying way into the air. The entire upper portion of the ship was simply gone!
There's lots of video of our strikes here: http://www2.hickam.af.mil/pacaf/news/rf.htm
The files are large, so it is better to right click and "Save target as" rather than trying to play it through MediaPlayer.
God bless,
Dave
I have had a very hectic couple of weeks. I flew over 60 hours in the last 8 days (ending Monday before Thanksgiving) in support of Resultant Fury.
Resultant Fury was meant to display our most recent capabilities that built upon Billy Mitchell's exercises that sank several battleships between 1921 and 1923. Our job was to be the first to sink a moving surface ship from an aircraft.
The first day was meant to showcase our ability to limit collateral damage and to be precise from high altitude. We had 3 sets of boats each consisting of a 35 foot tug boat with a 25 foot target boat tethered 12 feet behind. The boats were moving at 15 knots. Two B-52s were tasked to strike two of the towed boats from 29,000 feet with 1 2,000lb JDAM each.
The second day was designed to show our ability to sink large battleships from high altitude while moving. The USS Schenectady, a 522 foot landing craft, was set adrift in quick moving currents off the coast of Hawaii. Two B-52s were tasked to drop 5 2,000lb JDAM each and a third B-52 was tasked to drop 4 500lb LGBs.
I flew the practice day and Strike Day 1, where we struck the 25 foot boats. We struck each of them within 7 seconds of each other. The Navy thought the boats would sink within 20-30 minutes.
Our JDAM struck the moving targets without damaging the unmanned tug boats and obliterated the targets. There was nothing left to sink by the time the smoke cleared.Two other crews from my squadron struck the Schenectady the next day. We dropped the JDAM on the boat and it began sinking immediately as a large hole was blown in the side. It sank within the hour. The 3rd B-52 struck the superstructure and sent it flying way into the air. The entire upper portion of the ship was simply gone!
There's lots of video of our strikes here: http://www2.hickam.af.mil/pacaf/news/rf.htm
The files are large, so it is better to right click and "Save target as" rather than trying to play it through MediaPlayer.
God bless,
Dave
