Excerpts from Osprey - Combat Aircraft 064 - B2A Spirit - Units in combat

During OAF, a total of seven operational B-2As were available to the 509th BW on the ramp at Whiteman AFB. Six of these aircraft were assigned to combat, with a single jet kept as an operational reserve.

During OAF. the B-2A would be the only platform to deliver the new GBU-31 JDAM.
At the start of the campaign, there were around 600 JDAM in US stocks the only country to use the weapon.

The Spirit finally went into battle in the early hours of 24 March 1999 two years after the aircraft had achieved Initial Operating Capability. Two B-2As, each loaded with 16 GAMs launched from Whiteman and headed for the Balkans. Their attacks followed air and sea launched missiles fired earlier - they were the first manned aircraft to fly over their targets.

Interestingly, during the operations against Serbia, the B-2As as a general rule, did not operate with other assets as part of a strike package, but instead performed their missions either as singletons or in pairs outside of the NATO command.

It is important to note that on occasions, the B-2As in-theatre did take advantage of support from electronic warfare aircraft such as the US Marine Corps’ Italy-based EA-6B Prowlers. Those close to the B-2A community insist that this was done nor because the jet's low observable characteristics were insufficient, bur because 509th BW mission planners wanted to give their crews as much protection as they possibly could.

So successful was the GAM/Spirit that by 1 April, the USAF had used up 224 of the weapons - more than one-third of its total stock. This illustrates that up to this point in the B-2As had flown 14 individual aircraft sorties, averaging at least one B-2A single-ship sonic per day.

Between 5 and 12 April, the aircraft expended a further 162 GAMs, and on these occasions the B-2s were mostly performing dual-ship missions.

A total of 51 B-2A pilots flew at least a single combat mission, some flew two and a small number flew three.


Last edited by Hpasp; 12/07/16 08:28 PM.

Hpasp
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(U-2 over Sverdlovsk, B-52's over Hanoi, F-4 Phantoms over the Sinai, F-16's and the F-117A Stealth bomber over the Balkans.)
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Book from the author - Soviet Nuclear Weapons in Hungary 1961-1991
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