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American Morning
Military Options: Strategy Over Afghanistan
Aired October 11, 2001 - 10:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, we know at this time daylight raids have taken place over the Afghan capital city of Kabul.
For more on the military options, let's go back to Miles, who is watching that -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you very much, Bill.
At the vanguard of that air attack is the B-2 bomber. That's a stealthy bomber, meaning it's not easily detectable by radar. The missions of that bomber were very long ones. We are going to explain exactly how this works, how a B-2 bomber would take out an airfield, with the help of Gen. Don Shepperd, who is one of our military analysts.
General, thanks for being with us once again.
Let's get right down to the ground in Missouri. Believe it or not, this story begins in Missouri, Whiteman Air Force Base, home of the B-2 bomber. Why there? Why do they stage these long missions?
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN ANALYST: The bomber itself has to maintain its stealth characteristics. That can only be done in certain locations, and the support necessary to do that is not easily deployed right now, Miles.
O'BRIEN: One of the key aspects is the classified skin, which is radar absorbing.
The B-2 flew over station, hit its targets, and ultimately went on to Diego Garcia, for replenishment and to give the crew a little bit of rest. Let's give you a sense of what happened when those B-2s were over Afghanistan. We've just pointed out some of the basic big cities here. Let's focus in on Shindand for a moment because we do have some bomb damage assessment images. There's the airport at Shindand. Fairly straightforward thing. You would think it would be simple to take out an airport, but in a sense, it would be simple completely to destroy it -- not so simple to do it in such a way that you could use later, I suppose.
SHEPPERD: Exactly. You want to hit the aircraft and the shelters, but there are lots of shelters; you don't know which ones they are in. So you hit the taxiways, the ramps, and the runways so the airplanes can't use it. O'BRIEN: Let's take a quick look over to the Web for just a moment. This is a picture we got from our friends at the aerospace corporation at U.S. Space Command. This shows what happens when a B-2 comes over a site. It's a very, very precise attack, a series of weapons that are guided by satellite, correct?
SHEPPERD: That's correct. The mission from the United States, unseen, and now they drop out up to 16 of these, and they are satellite guided.
O'BRIEN: Let's go back to the graphics one more time, and we'll give you a sense of exactly how these satellite-guided munitions head on into the target, if you will. This is an animation showing some of these GLONASSes, as they are called, global positioning system, taking them down to a precise point on the ground, making it possible for the use of many fewer bombs. I read that statistic about the number of bombs required in World War II -- 650 per target -- now down to a handful now.
SHEPPERD: Now it's targets per airplane. You didn't see the bomber, because it's invisible, but unseen in this are the space warriors behind the scenes that never get any credit, operating the satellites that make this possible.
O'BRIEN: The folks at U.S. Air Force Space Command.
Let's take one look, if we can, at some of the still images as we head back to Whiteman Air Force Base for just a moment, which is where those B-2s end up going afterwards. This is an actual scene of Shindand afterwards. I circle all these pockmarks, which are fairly significant craters. The goal is what, General?
SHEPPERD: You've cut the taxiways, cut the ramp, and there's no way out to get to the airfield, and all of this is easily and quickly repairable if we want to use this later or if you want to repair it for civilian use and you can't in the economy after the attacks are over.
O'BRIEN: The point I asked earlier is a good point I think worth making one more time, and that's the question of why not just use the dirt to taxi on? You can't do that, can you?
SHEPPERD: You can't do that in a jet aircraft. You can blow the tires up, but the engines suck up the dirt. It will ruin the engines. You can't do it Miles.
O'BRIEN: We really appreciate your insights, as always, Gen. Don Shepperd.
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