Raid strategy
Whether in the era of cold weapons or hot weapons, creating and realizing surprise in offensive operations has always been the dream of military commanders of various countries throughout the ages. However, with the continuous development of reconnaissance technology and defense weapons and equipment technology, it is becoming more and more difficult to achieve surprise attacks. To this end, people have developed a variety of new technologies and weapons, and many new tactics have been derived.
Doolittle's Adventure
If you want to use an aircraft to carry out long-range air raid missions, you must consider whether the aircraft's range meets the conditions. If the target is too far away, it may encounter the embarrassment of Doolittle's air raid on Tokyo.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor that year, the United States suffered consecutive defeats in various battlefields, and morale was very low. To inspire, the U.S. military decided to bomb Tokyo, the capital of Japan. However, at that time, the United States did not master the practical aerial refueling technology, the bomber could only carry the fuel of the entire operation, and the longest-range bomber in the hands of the US military could not meet the needs of this mission. So the U.S. military racked its brains and came up with the idea of carrying the B-25 long-range bomber to the aircraft carrier, letting the aircraft carrier drive to the waters close to Japan, and then letting the bomber take off to carry out the mission. I have to say, this is a completely bad idea. Former U.S. Army Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Harold Doolittle was selected to plan and lead the operation. The B-25 is not a professional carrier-based aircraft, and it is extremely difficult to take off on an aircraft carrier, and it is impossible to land on the aircraft carrier, so these bombers can only fly to neighboring China after completing their mission.
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U.S. B-25 bomber
In order to reduce the weight of the aircraft and carry as much fuel as possible, the B-25, which carried out the air raid mission, was unloaded with the tail machine gun and removed the extra seats. On April 18, 1942, the first air raids on Tokyo began. Sixteen B-25s flew over Japan at noon Tokyo time, bombing 10 military and industrial targets in Tokyo. However, after the bombing mission, all the aircraft fuel was left, some had to land on the sea, some flew to China, but could not find the location of the airport in the night, and could only parachute after running out of fuel. Some of the pilots fell to the Japanese occupation zone and were captured by the Japanese army, some pilots were fortunately rescued by the local people, and two pilots drowned when they landed on the sea.
The people involved in this bombing operation carried out the mission with the determination to die, and their courage and sacrifice were admirable, but the price of this tactic was very heavy. The operation made the U.S. military aware of the importance of aerial refueling technology, and after the end of World War II, the United States quickly became the country with the largest number of tankers in the world.
The technical difficulty of aerial refueling is that the tanker and the oil receiver must remain relatively static, and the sentences must be consistent, which is consistent with the pilot's speed and flight direction, which is very demanding on the pilot's personal ability. It is dangerous for two planes flying at high speeds to be so close together that it is even more difficult to remain relatively still in the air with a disordered airflow. In 2018, a "Hornet" fighter of the US military in Japan accidentally collided with the KC-130J tanker during simulated aerial refueling, and none of the 7 US officers and men on the two planes survived.
U.S. KC-130 aerial refueling air tanker
Of course, if the aerial refueling technology is used properly, it is possible to achieve ultra-long-distance long-distance long-distance raids and safe return. In the Falklands War, in order to provide air support to troops more than 6,000 kilometers away, the British did not hesitate to let the "Vulcan" bomber carry out 6 aerial refueling one-way!
The Vulcan bombers who successfully arrived on the battlefield gave the Argentines a bombing blow, and the Argentines were surprised, not expecting to be attacked by the Royal Air Force so far away from the British mainland. The Vulcan bomber set a record for long-distance assaults, which was not broken by the American B-2 bomber until the late 1990s.
A missile that came out of nowhere
Bombers were the protagonists of long-range raids in World War II, but in the run-up to World War II, German V-7 and V-2 missiles caused a lot of trouble for the Allies. While these two missiles failed to change the fate of Nazi Germany' demise, their effects were far-reaching—it was found that bombs could be dropped outside the dry without pilots flying the aircraft.
The advantages of ballistic missiles are very obvious, in addition to not having to risk the pilot to perform the task, ballistic missiles fly faster than aircraft, have stronger penetration capabilities, and are easier to achieve surprise attacks. Today, the technical level of a country's intercontinental ballistic missiles is a visual embodiment of its strategic deterrent.
However, the development of ballistic missiles was not smooth, and in the United States after World War II, this new thing was deliberately suppressed. The man who took the lead in suppressing the development of ballistic missiles, everyone is very familiar with, is the hero of the fire attack on Tokyo, and general Curtis Limei, who has won almost all the medals of the US army.
Li Mei commanded his bomber troops to contribute to the end of World War II, and he often personally flew bombers to the front line to carry out missions, not so much that he loved fighting as he loved bombing. After the war, he was promoted to four-star general in 1951 for his outstanding merits, at the age of 44. Li Mei firmly believes that ballistic missiles are only a deterrent weapon, have little actual combat value, and the most reliable is the bomber force. And Li Mei's view was sung by Thomas White, deputy chief of staff of the US Air Force.
White graduated from West Point at the age of 18, one of the youngest graduates of the school, speaking 7 languages and not being a generalist. He realized the importance of ballistic missiles and began to vigorously promote the development of the first intercontinental ballistic missile in the United States, the Atlas.
At this time, Li Mei controlled the US Strategic Air Command, and the various resources in his hands were prioritized for bomber troops, and White's plan made him quite unhappy. He did everything he could to make it difficult for the atlas to develop, not only using his power to intercept the research and development of missiles, but also preaching on many occasions that the weapon "will never work."
In Li Mei's 572-page autobiography, only 3 pages are left for missiles, and these 3 pages are also explaining the indispensability of bombers. However, Li Mei's suppression did not last long, because White was promoted to chief of staff of the United States Air Force in 1957, and Li Mei could no longer directly intervene in White's project. That same year, the Soviet Union's first artificial satellite was launched by the R-7, the first ballistic missile of mankind, which put a lot of pressure on the United States. After that, the United States gave considerable support to atlas's research and development program, and finally successfully tested the "Atlas" ballistic missile at the end of 1957.
The U.S. Military Atlas ballistic missile
Although White supported the development of ballistic missiles, he did not deny the status of bomber forces. He said that the bomber force has a unique advantage, and for a long time to come, the US military will retain a large bomber force.
More than half a century has passed since Li Mei and White's dispute. Today, the U.S. military has both the B-2, the world's most advanced long-range strategic bomber, and powerful ballistic missiles such as the Minuteman-3 and trident. Why, after such a long period of development, ballistic missiles still have not replaced traditional bombers?
The pros and cons of bombers
Compared with strategic bombers, ballistic missiles have the advantages of strong penetration capabilities and extremely fast attack speeds, but they are limited by special working conditions and must rely on fixed silos, launchers or large mobile launch vehicles to be used, which makes ballistic missiles not flexible enough in use.
In contrast, strategic bombers can take off and land at any airfield that can support their deployment, with significantly more flexibility than ballistic missiles. At the same time, strategic bombers can not only undertake strategic strike tasks, but also perform tactical attack tasks, and their uses are more extensive than ballistic missiles. Therefore, although ballistic missiles are the best means to carry out strategic strike tasks, they cannot replace strategic bombers. If a country wants to establish a complete strategic attack and deterrence system, it must attach importance to the coordinated development of the two.
However, while traditional fighters can be flexibly deployed, they must be operated by pilots and sometimes equipped with a certain number of crew members. In the course of a long-distance raid, even extremely advanced stealth strategic bombers cannot guarantee that they will not be hit, and the personnel on board must bear certain risks.
On March 27, 1999, a US F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter was shot down during a mission to bomb the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, shocking the world. The F-117 was the world's first fighter designed entirely with stealth technology, claiming to be able to evade detection by all radar systems. However, it was shot down by a SAM-3 anti-aircraft missile made in the 1960s.
F-117 Nightingale stealth bomber
According to the convention, the US military will equip the pilots on the mission with GPS (Global Positioning System) sensors in order to find the pilots in time after the accident, but the US military believes that the F-17 cannot be shot down, so it does not equip the pilots of the F-117 with GPS. In order to find the F-117's pilot, Dale Zelko, the United States launched the largest search and rescue operation since the Vietnam War, and it took a lot of manpower and material resources to rescue him.
The development of drones
Similar accidents have made the United States begin to reflect, turn its attention to the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, and successfully develop a series of advanced drones such as "Predator", "Predator" and "Global Hawk". Unlike civilian drones, these military drones have a longer range, have certain stealth capabilities, and can also carry offensive weapons. In 2001, a Global Hawk drone took off from Edward Air Force Base in California, and after 22 hours of flight, it crossed the Pacific Ocean and arrived at Edinburgh Air Force Base in Australia. It can be said that in terms of range, drones are no less than manned aircraft.
The advanced technology used by drones achieves amazing results, but it is equally difficult to make these technologies error-free. An important reason why drones cannot replace manned aircraft for the time being is that drones may be hacked. For example, the drone must rely on GPS to obtain its own coordinate data, at this time if there is a stronger simulator signal to interfere with the drone, the drone mistakenly uses this signal as a GPS signal, then it will fly to the wrong location under the wrong navigation.
In 2011, a U.S. military RQ-170 "Sentinel drone" flew over Iran on a mission to spy on intelligence. After discovering the uninvited guest, the Iranian military did not shoot it down, but used some kind of GPS deception method to make the drone accept the wrong signal and obediently land at an Iranian airport. The intact drone gave the Iranian military a treasure trove of technical secrets.
RQ-170 drone with F-35 accompaniment
This is still the case with military drones, not to mention civilian drones. Mainland DJI drones are giants in the field of civil drones, accounting for more than 70% of the global civil drone market. In order to control the flight area of its products, DJI has developed a no-fly zone system, which cannot take off when the on-board GPS detects that the drone is in the no-fly zone. However, this system was cracked not long after its launch, and users can let their drones take off anywhere as long as they download specific software and carry out certain hardware modifications, which obviously poses a great threat to public safety.
However, with the improvement of technology, humans will certainly have a large number of drones and undertake more and more tasks in various fields. It remains to be seen whether these high-tech aircraft will become a good helper for people's production and life, or a deadly air threat.
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