Posted on 04/16/2011 5:02:26 PM PDT by neverdem
BERLIN, April 16 (UPI) -- NATO planes flying combat missions over Libya are starting to run out of bombs, officials said Friday.
Only six countries are involved in the operation and other members of NATO remain reluctant to become involved. That means the United States, which turned over bombing runs to NATO at the beginning of April, will probably have to resume them to keep the effort going if Moammar Gadhafi remains in power, The Washington Post reported.
A NATO official told the Post U.S. bombers are on "12-hour standby."
The Libyan rebels have requested ground troops and asked NATO to increase the bombing. On Friday, they said Gadhafi's forces used cluster bombs in Misurata, a port in western Libya, and Human Rights Watch concurred.
At a meeting in Berlin this week, Britain and France urged more NATO countries to join the mission.
"The reason we need more capability isn't because we aren't hitting what we see -- it's so that we can sustain the ability to do so," one NATO official told the Post. "One problem is flight time, the other is munitions."
The United States cannot simply supply laser-guided bombs to NATO because the U.S. munitions do not fit on British and French planes.
Just like the cruise missiles. Pissing them away like this leaves us powerless to deter Iran.
I smell a rat.
The article is pretty poor. Has the journalist never heard of Paveway? A bit of research would have noted that French and British aircraft are using Paveway. Other nations such as F-16 operators are using JDAM. Of course US Paveway and JDAM will fit on NATO assets. All they had to do was a simple search on images to see Mirage 2000 and Super Etendard using Paveway GBUs in Libya. Of course the bombs will fit.
Screw them go buy some from china.
Someone needs to remind these ragheads that the NATO countries are mostly broke. This whole fiasco is on its last legs imo.
It seems that NATO is only a hollow shell of a force. The European members of NATO used America’s promise to defend them to divert funds from their defense establishments to their social welfare programs. All of them have been living off of America’s dime. It’s time this situation was terminated!
Get in to win, or stay out altogether. None of this “half-hearted” war effort, “measured response” or simply loss of will, this is how Democrat administrations fight wars.
Especially wars they don’t particularly WANT to win.
I guess telling them not to fire until they see the whites of their eyes won’t help much.
It’s time to step up the campaign against Gaddaffy by drop arms & ammo to the rebels so they can begin to fight back.They need proper weapons not just Kalashnikovs.
maybe we should bomb France and let daffys daughter run it, I'm sure she would do a better job.
If Russia wanted to sweep into western Europe right now, I wonder what kind of opposition they’d face....Certainly the Poles would put up a good fight, but after that?
The concept of “total war” ended with WWII. In for a penny in for a freakin’ POUND.
Which is why Korea, Vietnam, OIF and OEF have been failures. Desert Storm was the closest we came and even that was limited by politics.
(When referring to Cato after the incident)......”it nearly blew his little yellow skin off!!!!”
There will never be another Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau. And there was only one Peter Sellers. Steve Martin’s portrayal was miserable, in my opinion. He never even came close.
obama is actually doing us a favor. he is killing the whole idea of “multilateralism”, simply by demonstrating that it doesn’t work.
I could not agree with you more.Sarcozy wanted this war and suckered Dumbo into it.
“The United States cannot simply supply laser-guided bombs to NATO because the U.S. munitions do not fit on British and French planes.”
Sarcozy’s way of telling Obama there is no way the US is not going to do all the heavy lifting.Screw em. Dumb bombs will do with these savages on the ground.
They would be showered with flowers and chocolate once they overcame Poland and reached Western Europe.Time to tell the EU they are responsible for their own defense and if we do remain in NATO we will only be responsible for bringing the donuts.
They should get some of the new Obama Foam Rubber Bombs. If one falls nearby you have to quit fighting and go to the nearest UN rest area.
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