B-2s At Sea

November 28, 2007: The U.S. Air Force recently held an exercise off Hawaii, using several B-2 bombers [PHOTO] that flew in from a base in Missouri. The B-2s ran simulated attacks on ships in Hawaiian waters. The B-2 can carry Harpoon anti-ship missiles. For two decades, the air force has equipped B-52 bombers with Harpoons, for the same type of missions. The Missouri-Hawaii mission was a round trip that kept the B-2 in the air for twenty hours. The B-2's radar can search the ocean, but is not equipped with a targeting pod that would enable it to identify what is down there. However, a B-2 can wreck a naval base in one pass, dropping as many as 80 JDAM (GPS guided) bombs in a minute.