Why America Should Not Send B-52 Bombers To Israel

Warrior Maven


By Robert Farley, The National Interest






Bombers versus Iran:




















Robert Farley, a frequent contributor to TNI, is a Visiting Professor at the United States Army War College. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. This piece was first published by WarIsBoring in 2014 (here) and is being republished due to reader's interest. 

Image: Flickr.

This piece was originally published by The National Interest

Comments (1)
  1. Big Crow = Massive Rollback conversion to super jammer.
  2. Surprise Axis = B-52 can totally circumnavigate the Arab peninsula with AGM-158XR providing ~900nm standoff from the Straits Of Hormuz north. No more penetrating over Jordan/Saudi/Iraq and THEN Iran, with tacair. Now that the Turkish route is gone. It was always a pipe dream to 'convert' the F-35I to a 2-seat+CFT+Israeli Ordnance standard, the jet is barely flyable as is and is short of radius.
  3. The Israelis get the royal treatment so substitute 'B-21 Raider' for tired BUFFs. Dedicated hangars with closed doors translates to 'are they or aren't they?' temporary deployments, especially if takeoffs move from Whiteman to say Grand Forks or Eilsen where they are not readily seen or squawked, entering the strategic nav corridors.
  4. If the Iraqis push us out (again) over Soleimani or even just because IS is no longer a major threat. While the Syrians maintain control over their country with the aid of the Russians. The only way we have to hostage the Caspian petrogas, should the Russian/Chinese (SCO/AIIB) axis generate a new global reserve currency, competitive with the USD as an oil purchasing medium, is from Israel. U.S. base-in of B-21s would be a much shorter radial'd than say Diego and would be similar to the British Mildenhall basing of B-1B/B-52 during OAF.