B-52H dropping high-drag bombs and IR decoys (flares).
There's been some talk lately about giving surplus B-52s to Israel, presumably so they can use them on you-know-who.
I believe the latest person to float this idea was Senator Tom Cotton (R-Crazytown). What should really scare you is this isn't the worst idea Tom Cotton has had by a long shot, and he's just getting started.
While this sounds like something the loud drunk three bar-stools over might have said, that's apparently not the case.
I've traced the origin back to an op-ed posted in the Wall Street Journal by a retired Air Force officer and a pro-Israel think tank called the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs or JINSA. Who's on the board of JINSA? Oh the usual suspects like Dick Cheney, Doug Feith, John Bolton and Joe Lieberman. That should give you and idea of who we're dealing with.
Now that we know who's behind this, we can safely assume that this is a really bad idea (it is). Like a lot of bad ideas, it almost sounds plausible until you actually think it through.
The problem as seen by the Israeli Air Force, is that they lack the ability to effectively target the Iranian nuclear sites. The facilities are beyond the effective range of Israeli fighter-bombers and are very well hardened. Nothing in the IAF inventory short of a nuke is going to make much of a dent in one.
Ah, but the US has a weapon that could do the trick. The Massive Ordnance Penetrator. A massive 30,000 pound "bunker buster" that digs a deep hole before going all explodey.
The Massive Ordnance Penetrator. Capable of attacking targets 200 feet underground.
Sounds like just the ticket. There's just one hitch. Nothing in the IAF inventory is nearly big enough to carry it. To put it in perspective an F-16 weighs in at 19,000 pounds empty. This is one big honkin' bomb.
This picture of the MOP inside the bomb bay gives you an idea of just how big it is.
No problem for the mightiest of all bombers, the B-52. So hey, let's just give some B-52s to the Israelis and call it a day. Brilliant!
Oy gevalt! What kind of a schnook* do they take me for? This is stupid on so many levels.
*a particularly gullible person. The Major spent his formative years on Long Island and is well versed in Yiddish slang.
First off, where would we get the airframes? The early "tall tail" B-52s were already obsolete by the late 1970s so there's no point in giving them any of those, assuming any could be made operational. The G models, which is the version I flew, were all destroyed by arms control treaty. They were literally chopped into pieces with a large crane-mounted "guillotine". Other than a few sitting in museums they're all gone.
The bone yard at Davis-Monthan AFB. At the lower right you can see B-52Gs that were chopped to pieces.
That leaves the last production version, the H model, currently operated by the USAF.
There are roughly a dozen H models sitting in the boneyard at Davis–Monthan AFB. In fact, one was recently resurrected to replace one that was badly damaged by fire. It was deemed cheaper to refurbish one from the boneyard than to repair the damaged aircraft. It takes time to bring a mothballed aircraft back on line. B-52H 61-0007 "Ghost Rider" will be fully operational again by mid 2016.
A mothballed B-52H. They can be put back into service but it takes time and money.
Presumably it's these twelve H models that Tom Cotton and the GOP brain-trust want to give to the Israelis. If we use "Ghost Rider" as an example, it would take at least a year to get the airframes operational again.
Presumably we would also train the Israeli bomber crews. The IAF hasn't operated a heavy bomber since they retired their B-17s back in the late 1950s. The Israeli B-17s are a story in and of themselves but we'll save that for another day. In my day it took a full six months to train a B-52 crew member plus another three months at their unit before they were considered "mission ready". Since the IAF would be starting from the ground floor, I figure it would take a good year or so for them to have an operational B-52 squadron.
I'm not sure how they would pay for it. B-52s are hideously expensive to operate. There's a reason only major powers like the United States and Russia operate strategic bombers. They cost big bucks (or rubles). It costs roughly $10,500 per flying hour to keep a B-52 operational.
Still let's suppose that with a massive expenditure of time and money it's now late 2016 and the IAF has its B-52s all ready to go. This is Tom Clancy territory but let's suspend disbelief for a while. I wonder what name they'd give it? I'd have gone with Kurnass (Sledgehammer) but they already used that for their F-4s.
First the Israeli B-52s would have to get to Iranian airspace. Israel is surrounded by countries that might not be too agreeable to overflight by the IAF. I don't see Turkey, Jordan or Saudi Arabia just sitting by while Israeli B-52s fly over on their way to Iran. I could be wrong on that, I suppose. The Saudis have as much reason to want Iran bombed as the Israelis do.
B-52 dropping a Massive Ordnance Penetrator.
For the sake of argument let's assume the IAF finds a way. Maybe they go the long way around by way of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. It doesn't really matter because now they have to penetrate Iranian airspace and get to their targets.
The last time B-52s actually had to penetrate well defended airspace was 1991. That was a long time ago and Iran today has better air defenses than Iraq had in 1991. I'm sure the Iranian nuclear sites are very well defended since we've been talking about bombing them since at least 2003. Anything worth bombing is worth defending and the MOP is not a stand-off weapon. The bombers would have to fly directly over the target to use it.
I also assume that the MOP needs to be dropped from high altitude to do its thing. It's a pure "gravity bomb" and it's going to have to fall a certain distance to get going fast enough to penetrate deep underground.
A high altitude attack on a well defended target is simply not a survivable option for a B-52. Even an H model with its improved electronic countermeasures isn't going to go up against modern SAMs at high altitude. That's assuming they got past the Iranian F-14s and MiG-29s in the first place.
Iran operates roughly 40 F-14s. These would be a threat to any unescorted B-52s.
The only way to get a B-52 over an Iranian nuclear site would be to suppress the Iranian defenses. The IAF simply does not have that capability. Iran is too big, too far away and has too many targets for the Israeli Air Force to do it. The Israelis are good but they're not ten feet tall.
The United States certainly has the ability to do it, but then we could just send B-2s and not have to worry about it. The whole idea is a farce.
Israel would be better off going with these B-52s.