Earlier this month, we brought you the news of the United States sending its first B-52 Stratofortress aircrafts to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar to assist the international coalition of 19 countries determined to demolish ISIS. This is particular newsworthy considering the United States hasn’t deployed B-52 Stratofortress aircraft into the Middle East since 1991 for the Gulf War.
Although the B-52s possess carpet bombing capabilities (which were used in Vietnam), Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command and Combined Forces Air Component said that this tactic would not be effective on ISIS, citing their assimilation into the general population requires a more pointed attack.
Today the Pentagon released a new video showing a B-52 bomber destroying an Islamic State weapons storage facility in Iraq, inducing a tingling sensation in my patriotic penis.
Boom roasted.
To get a profile of these B-52’s, allow me to reference our own Paul Sacca’s post from earlier this month:
Wingspan: 185 feet (56.4 meters)
Length: 159 feet, 4 inches (48.5 meters)
Height: 40 feet, 8 inches (12.4 meters)
Weight: Approximately 185,000 pounds (83,250 kilograms)
Maximum takeoff weight: 488,000 pounds (219,600 kilograms)
Fuel capacity: 312,197 pounds (141,610 kilograms)
Payload: 70,000 pounds (31,500 kilograms)
Speed: 650 miles per hour (Mach 0.84)
Range: 8,800 miles (7,652 nautical miles)
Ceiling: 50,000 feet (15,151.5 meters)
Armament: approximately 70,000 pounds (31,500 kilograms) mixed ordnance: bombs, mines and missiles. (Modified to carry air-launched cruise missiles)
Crew: five (aircraft commander, pilot, radar navigator, navigator and electronic warfare officer)
Unit cost: $84 million (fiscal 2012 constant dollars)
Initial operating capability: April 1952
According to Fox News, in an effort to help Iraqi forces as they move to retake the key northern city of Mosul, the U.S. has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send eight Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against ISIS. This marks the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year.
[h/t Fox News]