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.