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The mighty empire bombs Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, with its most advanced strategic stealth bomber
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this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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chapotraphouse
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Does Yemen even have a radar system or AA missiles? Are they worried about Yemeni's taking cover before the bombs drop?
Ansar-Allah has killed like a dozen MQ-9 predator drone bomber planes in the last year. The fash are likely sending B-2 Spirits partially to curb losses of MQ-9s.
this strike is a message to Iran as much as it is to Yemen.
The B-2 is one of the last remaining "carpet bomb" style bombers left in the US arsenal. If you imagine bombing in your head as just a plane dropping a massive torrent of bombs over a large area, that's the B-2. The US still has the B-52 of course, but it's ancient in comparison, so that leaves this. One of them can drop 80 500kg bombs on a civilian population in a single pass
They're using it not for the stealth value, but the pure terror value of carpet bombing civilians. It being stealthy is just ensuring they can't be reprised against
I was under the impression that the b-2 had a smallish payload due to it stealth constraints but maybe that was just in comparison to the B-52.
Jesus this is grim they're resorting to tactics they haven't used since Vietnam.
b2 can carry 40,000lb payload, b-52 is 70,000lb
And everyone forgets about the B-1, which can carry even more 500 pound bombs than the B-52.
I can't say for sure how they're using it - a bomber that big can carry fewer, larger weapons, after all - but it's more to say that the B-2 isn't a small tactical bomber, like an Su-34 or something. It can absolutely be used to level an entire neighbourhood in a single pass, if the US willed it
They have MANPADS (Russian, Iranian, Chinese), and a few Repurposed R-27 (Soviet Sidewinder copy) missiles ripped off some MiGs that weren't airworthy following the blockade and bombing by Saudi forces.
Most of their static radar systems were either destroyed or not operational for air defence when they were seized from the Yemeni army. A lot of them were repurposed as artillery missiles.
They've taken down a bunch of reaper drones (as others have said) but also damaged/destroyed at least half a dozen F-16/F-15 fighters using the ground-launched R-27s in ambushes.