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CNN Saturday Morning News
Weaponry the U.S. May Employ in Afghanistan
Aired October 13, 2001 - 07:28 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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Since the Gulf War in 1991, the U.S. military has made quantum leaps in its weaponry.
Kyra Phillips in Atlanta has a closer look at how U.S. weapons systems have improved dramatically in accuracy, amongst other things -- Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is so true, Jeanne. Good morning.
Well, during the Gulf War, one of the best weapons within the Air Force was the F-117 Stealth bomber, also known as the Night Hawk. This aircraft was developed in the late 1970s and was first employed in 1982, and then used during the Gulf War in 1991.
Now, this powerful arsenal delivered payloads of laser-guided missiles. Now, what is significant to note is that during the war on Iraq, only 244 of approximately 250,000 bombs were dropped -- were laser guided, that is. And that will not be the case this time around, though.
CNN military analyst General Donald Shepperd. General, thanks again for being with us.
MAJ. GEN. DONALD SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's -- first of all, do you think that the F- 117 could be used again?
SHEPPERD: It can be used again. It's not being used yet, reportedly, in this gulf war. It's an old airplane now. We've made great strides since. It's still a great airplane for certain things, but we got better stuff now.
PHILLIPS: All right, let's move into that better stuff. Let's start with the B-2. Now, this was not ready for the Gulf War, correct?
SHEPPERD: It wasn't ready. The airplane was out, but we didn't have the match-up of the weapons and the support. It was not ready for the Gulf War.
PHILLIPS: And this is significant, because this is hard to peg on a radar.
SHEPPERD: It really is. It's not invisible. No stealth airplane is invisible when it gets close to radar. This can come from the United States and essentially strike and be -- and avoid the radar-guided missiles in the early stage of the war. Stealth capability is essential to our military.
PHILLIPS: Move on to the B-1B. Let's talk about that.
SHEPPERD: B-1B, think of it as the truck. It's not a stealth platform, although it is stealthy. Its radar reflection is not as big as the old airplane like the B-52. On the other hand, it can come to the United States, and it carries a lot of bombs, and it can supersonic also. The B-2 is not supersonic.
PHILLIPS: All right, two that we've been talking a lot about this morning, JDAM and JSOW. Let's start with JDAM, the Joint Direct Attack Munition. We got to definitely point out the GPS system and how this has made such an influence, right?
SHEPPERD: Right, indeed. It's not just the airplanes that have improved, it's also the airplane and weapon interface and the integration with the sensors. The JDAM is directed by satellite. GPS global position system satellite.
Fourteen satellite, 17 satellite constellation and basically it has a guidance unit in the tail. It uses information from the satellites to hit coordinates on the ground.
The big difference is you can now hit them in any kind of weather. So it really extends our capability. You can go through the clouds whereas laser you have to have clear weather.
PHILLIPS: And you don't need as many airplanes now, right?
SHEPPERD: That's right. You can do -- it's not how many airplanes per target but how many targets per airplane is the big difference, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Now the difference between JDAM and JSOW -- the Joint Standoff Weapon is this has cluster bombs, right?
SHEPPERD: Yes, well, the JSOW is just coming into the inventory right now. Think of it as a light airplane attached underneath a real airplane. You go in fast and low or fast and high -- you release it, wings pop out and it glides to its target. It also has GPS and it can release what we call sub-munitions.
In other words, smaller munitions that go out and attack things on the ground. It also has some new things coming out that will give it penetration capability. Very formidable weapon, and it's standoff and it's launch-and-leave. So the aircraft can get -- can stay away from the target defenses and launch this weapon in. It's a big, big advance in warfare, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's move on to the GBU-28 -- the bunker busters -- that's how everybody has known these.
SHEPPERD: Indeed. Yes, this is a formidable weapon. It was designed to be used by the F-15E and the F-111. We no longer have the F-111s around. But basically the bunker buster is released at high altitude. It goes in and it's basically GPS guided. It hits a bunker, it goes underneath the ground and then blows up underneath the ground. It's designed for buried targets, of which there are many in this Afghanistan theater.
PHILLIPS: Now I know you flew this hot into Iraq. Lets talk about your experience with it.
SHEPPERD: It's very interesting. What we did in my old organization, the Air National Guard C-130s picked up these casings that were manufactured in northern New York hot and flew them when they were still warm down to Georgia where explosives were packed in and rushed to the gulf by air. And then we used them against Saddam's buried bunkers.
Kind of a personal interest story there that -- tremendous capability of our nation. When we have to move fast, we can move fast, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, we like a little flavor like that. All right, General, thank you so much.
SHEPPERD: Pleasure.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, coming up at 9:00 a.m. Eastern the general and I will take a closer look at improvements in the U.S. Naval capabilities since 1991. We will focus on the Navy. And for much more on the coalition strikes against Afghanistan you can click on to CNN.com/specials.
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