On the 24th, the CNN (CNN) published a report on how the U. S. military completed the “Marathon” mission to attack other countries. The US Air Force’s B-2 stealth bombers took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on Sunday and returned to Iran after a 37-hour mission to bomb three nuclear facilities. The un-sanctioned flagrant violation of the sovereignty of other countries and international law provoked international condemnation, with the US military boasting of an“Incredible feat”.
According to CNN, seven U. S. B-2 bombers, 125 support aircraft involved, flying west of the bomber even as a feint to confuse the outside world. “If the president had called, we would have flown,” said Melvyn Deere, a retired colonel who set the record for a 44-hour bombing campaign in Afghanistan in 2001, n pilots are often forced to push the limits of human physiology. According to Dill, the pilots were trained in a simulator that mimicked real-world flight conditions. A few days before the mission begins, the pilots are put on standby, with the military doctor handing out sleeping pills to adjust their schedules.
The report said the B-2 bomber usually has two pilots, according to the rules, after the start of the mission, during the take-off, refueling, bomb and landing, such as the key links, the two pilots must remain in their seats. In the cockpit, there was only a bare toilet, and the two pilots had to take turns sleeping in a narrow“Crib” behind their seats.
Dehydration is also the norm for pilots, who have to drink a bottle of water every hour due to long flights and have to use devices such as“Kitty litter bags” to deal with excretory problems. Even more alarming, the U. S. military has long relied on drugs to maintain its operational status. Dill acknowledged that during the 2001 mission, military doctors authorized the use of psychoactive drugs such as Amphetamine to stimulate pilots’ nerves. While he argues that policy“May change”, the shadow of drug dependence hangs over the ultra-long-range operations of the US military.
With the maturity of air refueling technology and the improvement of fighter performance, the“Marathon” bombing has become one of the important means to achieve the global rapid strike. In the 1999 Kosovo War, six B-2s took off from the Missouri Whiteman Air Force Base and flew back and forth to Yugoslavia for long, continuous flights of up to 30 hours each way.
According to a previous article in Aerospace Forces Magazine, sponsored by the US Air Force Association, the US military carried out a long-range bombing campaign in Afghanistan in 2001, codenamed“Enduring Freedom”, the B-2 stealth bomber took off from the United States and headed for Afghanistan. It landed at the Diego Garcia base after lingering in the target airspace. The plane flew more than 20 hours one way, a total of 44 hours. (Xu Xuan)