How naive. I bet the Russians thought the same and they are at war.

I can drive a rental truck to within 2 miles of Whiteman, open the back, and launch drones. GPS will be working, too, making it super easy. This is basically what Ukraine did, the very short range drones were launched from trucks very close to the airfields.

You've already forgotten the first WTC terrorist bombing where a rental truck exploded in the parking garage. An enemy can operate with relative impunity inside the USA.

This demonstrates the vulnerabilities of weapon systems concentrated in a just a few examples, all located in one spot to very cheap drones.

Mike C.

Eh?

The 19 remaining B-2’s are not “very widely” dispersed. Mostly at Whiteman and a few at Diego Garcia. Both AFB’s have a single runway and ramp.

The 76 B-52’s are based at Minot & Barksdale with a few at RAF Fairford. Again; one runway and ramp each.

The 45 B-1’s are based at Ellsworth and Dyess. Both have only one runway and ramp.

Dispersing the fleets is very spendy. Especially the B-52 and B-2 fleets as they are wired for delivering nukes and those payloads need to kept very nearby, under lockdown. B-2 stealth coatings require a LOT of (hazmat?) maintenance.

UKR and Israel both built their kamikaze drones in country.

Old data, they were long gone from Mountain Home when I got there in 2005. A quick search says they left there in 2002.

Wut? Google Gemini AI is wrong?

Thank you. Fixed it.

Eh?

The 19 remaining B-2’s are not “very widely” dispersed. Mostly at Whiteman and a few at Diego Garcia. Both AFB’s have a single runway and ramp.

The 76 B-52’s are based at Minot & Barksdale with a few at RAF Fairford. Again; one runway and ramp each.

Ok....then what does the B-21 mean?

I was standing on the Whiteman ramp the morning of 9/11. Every B2 was engines running ready to launch. I pity the unlucky bastards on the receiving end of a B-2.

Probably $21B !!!

That is exactly the type of thinking that just cost Russia 1/3 of their strategic bomber fleet.

You can fly right over the top of Whiteman AFB in your bugsmasher without talking to anyone, just like any other ClassD airport, done that many times. I have also been out in the nearby fields quail hunting right up to the outside of their fence. Don't kid yourself that most continental US military facilities are any more secure against these kinds of attacks than what we've seen on the TV in Russia. To really protect an asset like that it would have to really be in the middle of nowhere, like an area 51 surrounded by hundreds of miles of nothing.

Bingo. But is Area 51 sufficiently remote and sparsely populated? Perhaps Diego Garcia, Guam, Tinian, Thule, Azores … but those logistics tails; just ugh.

I am curious how many of RU’s strategic bomber fleet is mission ready at any moment? UKR’s kamikaze FPV drones seemed to be hunting specific airframes. I am guessing that UKR attrited more of RU’s mission capabilities than obvious (by counting airframes).

According to the usual AI plagiarism engines:

- USAF mission-capable (readiness) levels:

— B-52: 54% … 41 airframes
— B-1: 47% … 21 airframes
— B-2: 56% … 10 airframes

To further inhibit mission readiness; take-out the forward deployed tankers; because NKAWTG.

Using the plane spotter websites, it is probably not difficult to determine which airframes are mission capable. Automating this task is … trivial. I imagine our rivals accomplished this many years ago.

Weird. Lots of black SUV’s in the neighborhood this morning. Should I make another pot o’coffee?

What you guys are proposing, while technically possible would be a much more difficult undertaking than you think.

Ukraine didn’t use drones that ordered off of Amazon. It isn’t as simple as renting a truck and driving over to launch some commercial drones.

Ukraine has a fairly sophisticated modern army that is backed by the US, that operation was massive and could not be undertaken as easily in the United States. Even if a foreign military was able to stage such an operation in Mexico or Canada, it’s a long haul to Missouri.

Sure, a kamikaze attack with a swarm of 172’s could get the job done, but also highly unlikely.

Our greatest defense is that our government snoops all communication, it’s very difficult to orchestrate such an attack without the communication being compromised and the plan exposed. We learned our lesson on 9/11.

In summary, could a lone actor or terrorist do some damage? Yes, I just watched the new documentary about the Oklahoma City bombing last night, amazing what a couple of guys pulled off with limited resources.

A large scale operation to take out multiple aircraft… not impossible. But, not likely.

Sorry Chip, this isn't television. the government is not all seeing and it certainly isn't all powerful.

But you are right, there is a crucial difference between the US and Ukraine/Russia. In the US we misplace and write-off more shipping containers every day than cross the Russian border. It would be laughably easy for a semi-sophisticated adversary to stage a similar attack and avoid detection.

You might underestimate just how good our government is at monitoring communication and identifying threats.

The FBI is currently tracking tens of thousands of persons of interest with ties to foreign enemies.

If you doubt me, just grab your cell phone, call a buddy and have a conversation about bombing or assassination and see how quickly there’s a knock at your door.

I mentioned the documentary. I just watched about the OKC bombing and Timothy McVey, within six hours of the bombing they knew what rental truck carried the bomb and had sketches of who rented it.

Ironically, he was in custody when they figured it out, but that part was just luck.

Again, small, one off operations are relatively easy, huge and coordinated operations, almost impossible.