European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 25, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                War in the Gulf How effective Are b52s?by Bill Sweetman Jane a defence weekly As giant b-52s rain bombs and missiles with hellish Force at Saddam Hussein a troops in Southern Iraq and Kuwait some analysts wonder about the effectiveness of these round the clock Aerial attacks. More than 540,000 iraqi soldiers Are believed to be spread out Over Miles of desert and protected inside bunkers. A Quot the b-52 is like a Shotgun,&Quot.said one analyst. Quot it s. A going to hit a lot of things but it s not going to hit a lot of  Quot a lot depends on the resolve of the iraqi forces Quot said another expert. Quot As awesome As carpet bombing appears and you believe that nothing could survive that kind of thing people  military officials have been close mouthed about. Specific results of the bombing blaming bad weather for delaying photo reconnaissance assessments. Gen. Colin Powell chairman of the joint chiefs of staff told a news conference wednesday that iraqi forces Are a hunkering Down Quot sitting there dug in waiting to be attacked Quot a taking everything the allies can throw at them and wondering if the allies can keep it up. While the attacks Are no doubt steadily cutting off supplies and reinforcements Powell said it is. Hard to. Measure the damage being inflicted on the iraqis until they try to do something until the allies intercept radio messages or until defections indicate a drop in morale. Powell and defense Secretary  Cheney said that Allied ground troops will not attack until they Are sure the massive air raids have inflicted Quot enormous damage Quot on Saddam s army. B-52s and other Allied combat planes have been bombing around the clock since Allied forces shifted the air War to attacking Iraq s elite Republican guard dug in along the kuwaiti and iraqi Borders Saddam s most important line of defense. More than 35 years after the first b-52 rolled off the Boeing production line in Seattle and 18 years after they demolished great sections of Hanoi during the Christmas raids of 1972, the b-52 has gotten better a and the Pentagon Hopes deadlier a with age. A the biggest warplane flying against the iraqis and certainly one of the oldest none of the b-52s still flying is less than 30 years old new state of the Art computers and other equipment have made it possible for b-52s to drop unguided bombs and Quot smart weapons Quot with far better accuracy and better protect the plane from surf Ace to air missiles and radar guided antiaircraft fire. The giant bomber has been so extensively remodeler in recent years that Little More than its Airframe and hulking Silhouette remain the same. \. It is now estimated that with continued modifications. The plane can remain on Active duty until 2035,80 years after the first b-52 was delivered to the air Force. The bombers typically attack in formations of three unleashing All their 51 500 and 750-Pound bombs the bombers can also carry up to 12 laser guided smart missiles at once from altitudes of six or seven Miles. B-52s this week dropped so much tonnage As to set off vibrations across the Border in Iran Pentagon officials said. Some outside analysts say the Aerial barrage must be inflicting massive damage to troops and their equipment and will eventually  Republican guard ineffective against  ground troops in South Vietnam b-52s were often dispatched against concentrations of North vietnamese and Vietcong troops. 1 survivors were sometimes found dazed staggering and 4 bloody. Many defectors said fear of the b-52s had caused them to give up. Other analysts wonder if the bombers May be having Only a random Impact on the iraqis who they believe Are spread out in Small pockets Over at least 50 Miles of ,. Desert inside steel and Concrete bunkers that Are buried deep in the desert Sands. In an interview with the fort Worth Texas Star Telegram Richard Hallion a professor of aviation history with the smithsonian a air amp space museum in Washington d.c., said he suspects the massive bombing raids Are flattening Saddam s Best troop she noted that some bombs Are capable of burrowing deeply into the ground before exploding killing troops in their bunkers. Quot there san excellent expectation that we d know where % they were Quot Hallion  i think these  dig themselves in All they want. But i think they would find a direct air attack upon them a . But Robert Pape jr., a senior fellow at the University of Michigan a social research Institute and a highly regarded expert on air Power told the Star Telegram that it May take weeks of  inflict extensive casualties. Among the Republican guard. A.  Don t understand the area they re in. Its probably 50 Miles by 50 Miles Quot Pape said. Quot they would t be densely populated but spread out. Quot there a almost certainly several thousand tanks and artillery in that area. To put a bomb on each one is going to take a Long  ,. Pape said bombs from each b-52 typically create a Swath of destruction called a footprint Amilo Long and a half mile wide but Only 3 percent of that footprint is hit directly he said. Hallion said the psychological effect of constant bombing a As much As the physical destruction a greatly increases its effectiveness. Flying at High Altitude b-52s can t be seen or heard. Until the bombs Start falling a and then it is like Quot rolling Thunder Quot according to  the troops cannot hear the planes coming. They Are forced to remain deep in their bunkers Day and night Hallion told the Star news. Quot the psychological aspects Are not to be underestimated the bombings have a profound Impact on troops. They have no mobility. They cannot function above the surface. So even though they May be dug in and survive they re hot necessarily combat fit to do anything . Y a a retired army lieutenant colonel with expertise in bombing tactics who spoke to the Star Telegram on condition of anonymity said that he was sceptical that the air War would fully dislodge the Republican guard. Carpet bombing he said Quot gets the weak the lame and the Lazy Quot caught outside their bunkers. Quot a lot depends on the resolve of the iraqi forces Quot he said. The b-52 operates equally Well during the Day or night the air Force says and is immune to most variations in weather ,. A k a a. Of the 744 b-52s that were built Between 1955 and 1962, All but 247 have been retired including the Quot a Quot models which were the most widely used in Vietnam. A those earlier versions of the bomber carried More than twice the bomb loads of the Quot a Quot models that Are now attacking in the persian Gulf. In the newest reconfiguration much of the space that was once used to hold bombs now accommodates Banks of computers that have increased bombing precision. In the mid-1960s the wings and fuselages of the b-52s were reinforced and corroding metals were replaced with new alloys. A a. The reinforced plane can now Fly at lower altitudes and their Range has been increased from 7,000 to 7,500 Miles without refuelling a. A the electronics on the b-52 have been updated numerous times. Recent improvements include equipment a Nabung the planes to communicate with air Force satellites electro optical systems to provide guidance in Low level flights at night or in bad weather radar hammers to protect the plane and lasers used to guide smart missiles to targets. Friday january 25, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 17