27 April 2009

The Israeli air-to-surface missile Rafael Popeye was already ordered by the USAF to fulfill a long-standing requirement for a stand-off penetrator weapon as the AGM-142 Have Nap when Desert Storm began. The Air Force quickly got 24 missiles direct from Israeli Air Force stocks with the start of the air war but were never used- it was speculated that the political repercussions of using an Israeli weapon against an Arab state resulted in the missiles not being used by the B-52.

Source: Stratofortress: The Story of the B-52 by Martin W. Bowman. Pen and Sword Books, 2005, p180.

No comments:

Post a Comment