The United States plans to deploy nuclear-capable B-2 bombers to the United Kingdom and the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Sept 16).

The move would increase the weapons that Gen. Tommy Franks of U.S. Central Command has at his disposal for a potential attack on Iraq, according to Reuters (see GSN, Oct. 30).

“That’s what we want to give Gen. Franks,” said Col. Doug Raaberg, commander of the U.S. Air Force 509^th Bomb Wing in Missouri.  “The firepower he needs and the flexibility to do what he needs to do.”

An undisclosed number of bombers will relocate “when tasked” by higher-ranking officers, according to Raaberg.  The B-2 is capable of flying 6,000 miles carrying 40,000 pounds of bombs without refueling, he said (Jim Wolf, Reuters, Oct. 31).

The move comes more than a year after the U.S. Air Force purchased deployable shelters for the bombers.  Officials had intended to buy 12 shelters for deployed B-2s, but lowered the order to five earlier this year (see GSN, Aug. 13).  The shelters allow technicians to apply a coating that makes the B-2 harder to track.

The shelters are “not an umbrella for bad weather,” Raaberg said.  “They really are an oven” that gives the Air Force perfect conditions to work on the planes (Aerospace Daily, Oct. 31).

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