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NDTV
24-06-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Not Just B-2 And Tomahawk, US Secretly Deployed These 5 Weapons For Iran
New Delhi: Five weapons, apart from the Tomahawk cruise missiles and the GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs, no one knew about till now, were also deployed by the US for its mission to strike Iran's three nuclear sites - Fordow, Natanz and Eshafan. The B-2 bombers carrying GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) flew from the Whiteman Air Force Base in the US. B-2s were joined by the linked-up escort and support aircraft once over land, and the US started deception and decoy tactics and used five weapons before GBUs were dropped. There was coordination at the finest level and minimal communication between bombers and escorts. AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) Suppressing the Iranian air defence was the first objective of the escorts to ensure enemy radars and Surface-to-Air missiles do not take down the B-2s that were largely undetected during the majority of their flight. These missiles were fired by US fighter jets to support the B-2s to ensure safety from ground engagement. The US used the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile to suppress the air defence. The air-to-ground missile's primary targets are relocatable air defence targets. The US did confirm use of decoys, deception and Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD), but not the weapon used. The AGM-88E missile can travel speeds exceeding Mach 2. Apart from the F/A-18 Super Hornet, it is also compatible with the F-35A, F-16 and the EA-18 Growler, a variant of the F/A-18. The strike package was supported by US Strategic Command, US Transportation Command, US Cyber Command, US Space Command, US Space Force and US European Command. ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoy The ADM-160 is a low-cost modular air-launched craft that duplicates the radar signature of the combat profiles of an American fighter aircraft and the allied combat fighters. It is a flight vehicle that looks like a US aircraft on enemy radar and Integrated Air Defence Systems (IADS). According to the US Armament Foundation, ADM-160 protects valuable aircraft, and MALD offers counter-air operations to neutralise air defence systems that pose a threat to US and allied pilots. MALD-J is the jammer variant of the basic decoy, and the first ever stand-in jammer to enter production. United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, in the press briefing, had said, "Iran's fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran's surface-to-air missile systems did not see us. Throughout the mission, we retained the element of surprise. In total, U.S. forces employed approximately 75 precision-guided weapons during this operation." AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) Manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the AGM-158 is a stealth cruise missile kept as a backup weapon during the mission. The F-35s were armed with these because the main weapons were fired successfully. They are used to take out high-value targets, well-defended areas, from a significant distance. Over 3,500 JASSM missiles have been delivered to date. Their warhead has a 1,000-pound blast fragmentation and a range of greater than 500 nautical miles (926 km). AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) Developed by Raytheon, JSOW is a family of weapon systems with multiple variants. The weapon was jointly developed by the US Navy and Air Force to deploy a standardised medium-range glide weapon to take out targets from long distances outside the range of enemy air defence. These weapons were on standby during the mission and were tasked to the Iranian airbase infrastructure in case enemy fighter jets were scrambled. The missile was not fired since the B-2 did not trigger a scramble of fighter jets. E/A-18G GROWLER The Growler is a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet with a sophisticated electronic warfare suite. The Growler is a carrier-based fighter aircraft that replaced the EA-6B Prowler. In this mission, the Growler carried out continuous jamming during its flight and sanitised the flight path of the B-2 bombers. It carried out Electronic Warfare missions to jam enemy radars and target Iran's command and control centre with its EW suite's capability. The Growler holds the multi-role capability of the Super Hornet. They first went into production in 2004 and made their first flight in 2006. It carries the AIM-120 air-to-air missile, AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) that targets the enemy radar's electronic transmission by homing on it. Operation Midnight Hammer The main strike package had seven B-2 bombers with two crew members each aircraft. They took off from Whiteman and linked up with mid-air refuellers at checkpoints and flew east from Missouri toward Iran. They linked up with the support package at the US Central Command (CENTCOM). The tightly timed manoeuvre required exact synchronisation across multiple platforms in a narrow piece of airspace, all done with minimal communications. The US also used the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning in the support package. Just before the strike package entered Iran, a US submarine in the central command area of responsibility launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets. At approximately 6.40 pm Eastern Standard Time, 2.10 am Iran time, the lead B-2 dropped two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) weapons on the first of several aim points at Fordow. The remaining bombers then hit their targets as well, with a total of 14 MOPs dropped against two nuclear target areas. All three Iranian nuclear infrastructure targets were struck between 6.40 pm and 7.05 pm Eastern Time.
TimesLIVE
06-06-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
US military's logistics drill aims to burnish East Asia crisis response
Drills in East Asia this summer by the US military body charged with moving munitions and equipment will help it better co-ordinate and communicate with allies in response to a crisis, its commander said on Friday. Alarmed by growing Chinese assertiveness, whether in the disputed South China Sea or around Chinese-claimed Taiwan, Washington and its friends in the region have been drilling together regularly. The US Transportation Command (Transcom) is responsible not only for co-ordinating the pre-positioning of weapons and other equipment around the world by land, air and sea but also for resupply in the event of conflict. On a visit to East Asia, Transcom Commander Randall Reed told reporters it was essential to maintain and expand ties in the region to ensure a swift US response to disasters and counter threats to peace and security. 'We're going to have a series of exercises and will test the logistics architecture and infrastructure which provides sustained freedom of manoeuvre,' he said on a teleconference, without giving details of location or timing.
NDTV
12-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
US Military Spent Over $21 Million On Deportation Flights This Year
The US military has spent more than $21 million on flights to deport migrants from the United States during President Donald Trump's second term, according to figures released Monday. Between January 20 and April 8, US Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) flew 46 flights on military aircraft in support of migrant deportation efforts, the command told Senator Elizabeth Warren, who released replies to a series of questions she had posed. "The flights total 802.5 hours at an average cost of $26,277 per flight hour," TRANSCOM said -- a total of more than $21 million. Warren -- a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- said "every American should be outraged by Donald Trump wasting military resources to pay for his political stunts that do not make us safer." "US service members did not sign up for this abuse of power," the Democratic lawmaker said in a statement. The Trump administration has launched what it has cast as a major effort to curb illegal migration that has included immigration raids, arrests and deportations. Trump has also deployed thousands of additional troops to the US border with Mexico, where they have been granted the power to detain migrants in certain areas.
Boston Globe
04-04-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
US military aims to turn island bird refuge into SpaceX rocket site
Although the notice of intent did not mention SpaceX, vehicles from Elon Musk's rocket company would be used for the project, according to a government official familiar with the proposal who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up SpaceX did not reply to a request for comment. Advertisement The company signed a $102 million contract with the government in 2022 and has been working toward a demonstration of the point-to-point transport concept. Several other companies have research-and-development agreements with the US Transportation Command related to rocket cargo transportation. Among them is Blue Origin, whose owner, Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post. But SpaceX is far ahead of the pack, and its Starship rocket offers far more payload capacity than any other rocket capable of reentry. In November, Space Force Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, joined Musk and the newly elected Donald Trump to watch a Starship test flight out of Texas. Although Musk often talks up the potential for Starship to fly to Mars, he has also said, 'I think there's a pretty good chance that it does Earth-to-Earth transport, as well. … It's the fastest way to get somewhere.' Advertisement SpaceX's Texas launches have damaged nearby bird nests and eggs, according local environmentalists. But the Space Force said in its notice of intent that it expects the construction and operation of the demonstration project on Johnston to have no significant environmental impact. In a statement to The Post on Thursday, the Department of the Air Force, which includes the Space Force, said it was exploring different launch systems and working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 'to develop meaningful measures, as appropriate, to avoid, minimize, and mitigate potential impacts to the migratory bird populations on Johnston Island.' But scientists and conservationists familiar with Johnston are highly concerned. 'Johnston Atoll, for some of these species, will be the only land these birds ever know,' said Brad Keitt, a marine ornithologist with the nonprofit American Bird Conservancy who has monitored birds there. 'If we scare them off of this island, they don't have another place to go.' This remote island cluster has been subject to political winds blowing from Washington before. In 1926, President Calvin Coolidge designated the islands as a federal refuge for seabirds. Eight years later, with World War II on the horizon, President Franklin D. Roosevelt placed the atoll under military control. During the Cold War, the US government conducted high-altitude nuclear tests on Johnston and later stockpiled Agent Orange and incinerated chemical weapons on the atoll. Advertisement But in 2004, the military once again returned Johnston to the birds. The atoll is part of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, created by George W. Bush in 2009 and expanded by Barack Obama five years later. Today, tens of thousands of red-tailed tropicbirds, red-footed boobies and sooty terns build nests and lay eggs on the atoll, the only specks of land for hundreds of miles. Johnston is part of 'one of the last wild and intact ocean ecosystems that we have on Earth,' said Jonee Peters, head of the Conservation Council for Hawaii, which opposes the rocket project. 'It is a seabird paradise,' Keitt said. 'There are just not that many habitats like this left in the world.' Birds seek out the atoll as a place to build their nests far away from people, predators and pests. But, after the military left, it took work to restore that habitat. The human presence had led to an infestation of yellow crazy ants, one of the world's worst invasive insects. The ants spray acid that can cause deformities in birds and in some cases deadly infections. The US Fish and Wildlife Service spent a decade eradicating the ants - sending strike teams to poison them with bait, search for them by hand and sniff them out with trained dogs. The effort helped the birds rebound. Between 2012 and 2021, the number of active red-tailed tropicbird nests more than doubled, jumping from about 5,200 to 13,000. Now, biologists are concerned that rocket noise - even if initially limited to landings - will spook birds from their nests, leading some to abandon their clutches of eggs. Advertisement 'Landings still emit a sonic boom which would be greatly disturbing to a bunch of nesting birds,' said biologist Ryan Rash, who volunteered on Johnston twice to confirm the success of ant eradication efforts. 'Just us riding our bikes around the island would flush birds off their nests,' he said. Keitt said reopening runways for airplanes to run the program could also disturb the birds and risk the introduction of other pests. " New invasive species brought to the island as part of this effort could last long beyond any of the activities that they're proposing," he said. The Space Force will release an environmental assessment, a concise review of the project's potential impacts, sometime this month, according to a Federal Register notice. Desirée Sorenson-Groves, head of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, criticized the administration for not conducting a more comprehensive type of evaluation - called an environmental-impact statement - given the sensitivity of the bird sanctuary. 'Anytime you're looking at something as monumental as landing rockets on a small place with millions of birds, you have to wonder if it's a really good idea,' she said. 'The impacts to birds are clearly enormous.' In an email, the Fish and Wildlife Service said it is 'still in the process' of working with the Department of the Air Force 'on identifying mitigation measures to minimize the range of impacts to seabirds and other wildlife,' including accidentally bringing in invasive species. The rocket cargo program is also still in the process of proving its feasibility. Using current modes of transport, it can take two to three weeks to resupply forces in the Western Pacific, a delay that raises questions about whether the Pentagon could come to the aid of Taiwan if China invaded. Delivery by plane might be difficult or impossible if hostile forces denied access to the area. Advertisement One potential solution would be launching a rocket with the necessary equipment and munitions, and then landing it where supplies are needed. Such a system could also be used to quickly drop supplies for humanitarian aid, according to the Air Force Research Laboratory. But there are also concerns such a system could create confusion, as a US-launched rocket falling into a conflict zone might look like a ballistic missile. Some in the scientific community have dismissed point-to-point delivery as impractical. 'These are old ideas and they have been rejected time and time again because there isn't a great need for them, they would be an expensive option, and because 'point to point' delivery looks a lot like a nuclear delivery system, and it's just too risky,' Laura Grego, a senior scientist and research director with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a December email. Keitt noted that Johnston was meant to be a bird haven before the arrival of the military. 'There was incredible damage associated with the initial military buildup. I see no reason to have that damage happen again,' he said. 'I would hope that we are better than that now.'
