(Sirte) Last night a couple of US B-2 Stealth bombers (designed with the intention of penetrating Soviet airspace and attacking high-value targets.) with nothing else to do decided to fly over to Libya look up their old friends in the region and left 108 precision-guided 500-lb bombs as leaving presents from the outgoing administration all over two ISIS training camps 30 miles southwest of the Libyan coastal city of Sirte, killing an estimated 85 terrorists.
The B-2 strikes were instantly followed up by dronestrikes which mopped up any stragglers as well as gathering post strike real time information.
The pair of B-2’s flew for 34 hours at an operating cost of approximately $130,000 per flight hour. That comes out to roughly $4.4 million a piece or $8.8 million for the duo. Additionally, there were roughly 15 aerial refuelling aircraft involved in the mission, not to mention the cost of 108 JDAMs.
data-lang="en-gb">(The U-28A is a airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft)
Only 4 hours before two #USAF B-2As bomb them. #ISIL terrorists convoy from a USAF's U-28A ISR FLIR camera view in #Sirte, #Libya yesterday! pic.twitter.com/2if3WEFBwG— Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) 20 January 2017
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The moment precision guided bombs dropped from #USAF B-2As hit the #ISIL terrorists in #Sirte, #Libya last night. pic.twitter.com/5of5m7ftYd— Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) 20 January 2017
The B-2 strikes were instantly followed up by dronestrikes which mopped up any stragglers as well as gathering post strike real time information.
Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook has issued a press statement:
"In conjunction with the Libyan Government of National Accord, the U.S. military conducted precision airstrikes Wednesday night destroying two ISIL camps 45 kilometers southwest of Sirte. The ISIL terrorists targeted included individuals who fled to the remote desert camps from Sirte in order to reorganize, and they posed a security threat to Libya, the region, and U.S. national interests. While we are still evaluating the results of the strikes, the initial assessment indicates they were successful. This action was authorized by the President as an extension of the successful operation the U.S. military conducted last year to support Libyan forces in freeing Sirte from ISIL control."
The strike on terrorist elements using B2 stealth bombers based in the US as opposed to US assets much closer to the Libya , looks more likely to be a message to Moscow, China and Iran, rather than a message to ISIS, telling them to stop messing about as the US can strike them any-time, any-place and anywhere. which is strange as President Obama left it till he had one day left in Office, in which to do so. But it did come at a huge cost:
The pair of B-2’s flew for 34 hours at an operating cost of approximately $130,000 per flight hour. That comes out to roughly $4.4 million a piece or $8.8 million for the duo. Additionally, there were roughly 15 aerial refuelling aircraft involved in the mission, not to mention the cost of 108 JDAMs.
