NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND 7115 South Boundary Boulevard MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101 Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 |
April 12, 2003
Release Number: 03-04-110
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
B-52 LITENING POD USED IN COMBAT FOR FIRST TIME
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM - For the first time in combat history, a B-52 Stratofortress used a LITENING Advanced Airborne Targeting and Navigation Pod to target facilities at an airfield in northern Iraq at approximately 5:45 a.m. EST April 11.
A crew of reservists from the 93rd Bomb Squadron, Barksdale Air Force Base, La., and active duty airmen from the 23rd Bomb Squadron, Minot AFB, N.D., flew the bomber from a forward operating location to successfully drop one laser-guided GBU-12 munition on a radar complex and one on a command complex at the Al Sahra airfield northwest of Tikrit using the LITENING system.
LITENING is an advanced airborne infrared targeting and navigation pod designed to improve both day and night targeting capabilities. It provides the B-52 radar navigator with real-time images, greatly increasing the aircraft's flexibility to positively identify dynamic targets in a continually changing battlefield environment.
LITENING is used to designate targets and provides guidance to the laser-guided munitions for pinpoint accuracy eliminating the need for an outside target source either on the ground or in the air when it is used
The radar navigator, in today's case, identified the targets with the imagery provided by the pod, then guided the GBU-12s to the targets with the LITENING laser, successfully striking the targets.
CENTCOM press releases can be found at www.centcom.mil
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
