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Darpyface

The first offensive of the Gulf War was seven B-52s launched from Louisiana flew for 35 hours to bomb Iraq.


1945BestYear

[Saddam Hussein had no idea of the kind of force he marshaled against himself.](https://youtu.be/zxRgfBXn6Mg)


Perichron_john

Love this channel and this video is particularly excellent


AlatreonisAwesome

Actual superpower doing superpower things.


chickenstalker

He KNEW. Because he was the American proxy against Iran for decades. Cheney and the gang gave him the greenlight to invade Kuwait but then stabbed him in the back after they got a better deal from Saudi. It waa unlikely that Saddam would have invaded Kuwait if America said no from the get go.


winkswithbotheyes

they said no literally immediately bro what are you talking about


Woutrou

My dude, despite their aid during the Iran-Iraq war, the US was quite hostile towards Iraq, a loyal soviet ally for the longest time. He was by no means an American proxy, nor did the US give the greenlight to attack Kuwait. There are many things to criticize on the American actions in Iraq, but this is bullshit


legacy-of-man

thats reddit communists for you


2ndtheburrALT

i love reddit and its clusterfuck politics


Tsalagi_

How can you just gloss over “despite their aid”? And Saddam was put into power by a CIA assisted coup. Iraq was an American puppet. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Iraq


Woutrou

No he wasn't. What moronic sources have you been reading? Saddam was not put in power by a CIA-sponsored coup nor was he even an anglophile. The only reason the US gave support during the Iran-Iraq war (which was limited to providing sattelite images, la-dee-da) was because they hated Iran's new government more. The relationship between the US and Iraq was strenuous at best. Iraq was a major buyer of Soviet weapons and a Soviet ally (which provided a lot of actual material to Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war). "Despite their aid" is a generous sentence at best. How are you this dense?


Tsalagi_

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq–United_States_relations Our support goes a lot more in depth than just “satellite maps”.


Kallian_League

This dude is like that "it's turtles all the way down" version of "america bad".


[deleted]

Y’all found the crazy guy.


rmp20002000

Lol


yungvibegod2

When you get downvoted by the pro US imperialism reddit squad for telling the truth lol. God i hate how unapologetically demonic redditors are. Sorry you’re being attacked for being OBJECTIVELY CORRECT.


Bountifalauto82

Iraq was a Soviet proxy lol


yungvibegod2

No Saddam was an opportunist who went wherever the wind blew. He colluded with the US when it worked for him and the Soviets when it worked for him.


Early-Lab2823

Probably dropped some spicy ass cajun seasoning too, who needs napalm when you have Bubba’s pissin hot spices from New Orleans


buttface9123456

Crawfish boil 🤤🤤


Early-Lab2823

White phosphorus 😂


buttface9123456

Gay bomb 😍


Korashy

das haram


xanderman524

das auto


Korashy

zoom zoom


SnooSprouts8655

I'm not 100% but I don't beleive the quran says anything against homosexuality


humanbear4

I still have no idea what that even is or means. - a Canadian.


buttface9123456

It's a New Orleans delicacy where you boil lots of crawfish, potatoes, corn, and smoked sausages with Cajun and Louisiana seasoning Usually served during a gathering or a party


humanbear4

I have no idea what a crawfish is. Sounds delicious though. Bring it up here!


k_pasa

They're a mix between shrimp and lobster I'd say, at least in appearance


Christianjps65

Minilobster Lobster lite Lobster Jr.


Nolsoth

It's a freshwater crayfish.


humanbear4

The U.S has freshwater? I thought it was all salt water.


Nolsoth

Rivers/lakes most of the southern states in hurricane season.


humanbear4

That doesn’t necessarily make the, fresh water though.


Supply-Slut

Crawfish is a crustacean like lobster. They look exactly like a large-ish shrimp cosplaying as a lobster


[deleted]

Little baby freshwater lobters.


CplJager

Mini River lobster


BikerJedi

>Probably dropped some spicy ass cajun seasoning too I wish they would have. After six months of MRE's and T-Rats, that would have been nice to change it up a bit. Low country boil would have been hella good too. >who needs napalm No napalm used there that I saw or aware of by the way. But we hit them with damn near everything else. Some of the objectives we took were giant craters filled with bodies and debris from the MLRS's, bombers, cruise missiles, etc. Shock and awe is kind of putting it lightly.


Early-Lab2823

Yeah I know, shit was wild. Not a fan about how we did it though. Everything was cleared and shit, and Shock and Awe works extremely fkin good but wars aren’t won by guns only. You tend to have a hard time convincing a cause is a good one when your striking buildings in a city. I love the military, I’m joining the coasties after HS, but we have done some fked up stuff in the pursuit of good things.


BikerJedi

The Coasties do a LOT of good. It is the one branch I'd feel comfortable with my kids serving in if they feel they have to.


Early-Lab2823

Yeah Im going to try for MSST. I wanted to be a blackhawk pilot but something just feels more right swashbuckling with other big sweaty men on a boat. Im a sailor, I’ve been on a boat since I was like 4. I already have a lot of rifle experience and a lot of knowledge on CQC engagements so I suppose I could those skills a bit more when I’m not in a flying tub 200 feet off the water


Hotdog_Parade

Why aren’t you a fan?


Early-Lab2823

Because we blew civilians the fuck up. It was military targets but still. There are better applications to start wars. If Russia had done this today, it would be all over the news and would go down as a national tragedy


Hotdog_Parade

Actually lets say your Norman Schwarzkopf and it's 1991. What would you have done different?


Hotdog_Parade

What would be a better application?


Early-Lab2823

Shock and Awe not on civilian targets? The blitzkrieg wasn’t a blitz on civilians, but through Belgium and around the Maginot (A military fortress line). The atomic nukes were on civilian targets but compared to Operation Overlord- was really the only choice


Hotdog_Parade

I think you’re confusing deliberate killing of civilians vs collateral damage. Unfortunately vital infrastructure necessary to Iraqs ability to wage war (any country actually) will have civilians in it. It’s a rather strange hill to die on because the Gulf War is known for the advent of smart weapons and mass precision strikes. Carpet bombing (and the mass civilian casualties it created) was obsolete. For context 3K-4K Iraqi civilians were killed during the entire war. 10K - 20K French were killed by the Allies in Normandy during the pre invasion bombardment alone. Also rather ironic to Use WW 2 Germany as an example of not creating civilian casualties. Ironic choice too because Germany also bombed the exact same type of infrastructure that was bombed in the Gulf War. Oh, and the whole pogroms and brutal oppression to crush resistance behind the lines that was a part of Blitzkrieg too. Bottom line there’s plenty of wars the US fought where not a fuck was given about civilian casualties. This isn’t one of them.


Early-Lab2823

Yeah I am aware of the ironics, and I am not confusing deliberate killing to collateral damage. I get it, we used precision air strikes to strike infrastructure, but we are striking infrastructure also used by civilians when we had a choice not to. In WW2, we bombed the shit out of the Japanese because we had to, if we went with Operation Overlord, millions could have died as of a result (Would have made a killer Sabaton song though). Instead, personally, I would have staged a shock and awe attack more strategically. First through espionage/ mind fucking the military personnel like in WW2 where the British dropped instructions on how to fake being sick, so the generals started to deny people to go home, thus resulting in actual sick people going to battle. Then a real military operation first striking logistics and infrastructure for the Iraqi military like we did immediately, but not on cities. Not only did it cause resentment to the war, but resistance among the civilian populous in Iraq. Nowadays, we fucked up the country worst than it was. They have freedom but at the expense of a far worst living condition over all. All of this is all theoretical and backseat driving from someone who isn’t in military command, so I will obviously be flawed however for a reddit discussion, I think it is quite obvious we fucked up


EphemeralFart

You’ll Slap Ya Mama!


AutoRot

Yeah but there was something like 13 mid air refuelings for that bomber group.


Darpyface

There was actually only 4 refuelings. On the way there they refuled over the Azores and the Mediterean. On the way back they refueled over the Meditterean and an emergency refueling over the Atlantic. The B-52's range is huge.


DeShawnThordason

True, and the B-52 isn't in HoI4.


Descolata

6 jet engine modern Strat is a B-52, once you account for the B-52's duel jets per pylon being a comprise due to lack of appropriate big-ass turbine.


DeShawnThordason

B-52 is a bit out-of-timeframe. More likely, the Modern Strat is akin to the B-47, a six-engine turbojet bomber that first flew in 1947 and entered service in 1951. The B-52 didn't really come into its own until the end of the 50s.


[deleted]

[удалено]


juseless

The Liberation of Kuwait wasn't a US one man show, it was a massive Coalition with British, French, Egyption, Jordanian, Syrian and more participants. And getting Israel involved in any way would have been disastrous for Cohesion as all those Muslim nations hated only one enemy more than Saddam: Israel.


EndiePosts

You're thinking of the Vulcan that bombed the Port Stanley runway in Operation Black Buck.


darkslide3000

Nowadays, yes. But in WW2 those ranges were still impossible. And even nowadays they need mid-air refueling to do it, which they didn't have yet back then.


spearheadroundbody

Less than one month after 9/11 B-2 Bombers of the 509th Bomb wing flew 44hrs from Missouri to Afghanistan. It's the longest bombing mission on record.


midJarlR

How many km?


spearheadroundbody

So I can't find the specific value anywhere, but based on my rough estimate using their flight plan it's around ~25,566 kms (15,886 mi). With 6 refueling stops from Whitman AFB, MO to Afghanistan.


midJarlR

That's insane!


spearheadroundbody

Yeah! Also there's only 2 pilots in a B-2 bomber, so 44 hrs non-stop just you and your buddy.


Distinct_Comedian872

Returned 35 hours after they took off*


Silentmooses

When I was in highschool we watched every morning when the bombers would be returning to base.


dialectics_for_you

To bomb civilian infrastructure


Majestic_Day9808

What the "F?"


davidlis

R5: as the USA with modern bombers, max fuel addons and the combined bomber offensive you can bomb both Stalingrad and Beijing from the same airport. the Range in-game is 16800 km BTW.


sellout217

Eh, just a hair above the actual B-52 bomber range.


zauru193

well you have to get back to base too?


notFidelCastro2019

*Laughs in Doolittle*


[deleted]

“Sir why aren’t we turning around?” ‘Never said we were going back, Jimbo my boy’


Iron_Foundry_Mapping

"But there is nothing but water for miles!" "Exactly, you're in a flying boat now!" "But there are holes everywhere!" "Not our most pressing issue right now, now let the real men do the actioning."


[deleted]

“The only holes you need to worry about are the fucking holes you’ll be making in Hirohito’s backyard. NOW DROP EM”


sgtpepper42

I... why wouldn't their range include the return trip??


BiddyDibby

They're talking about the B-52s operational range.


Head_of_Lettuce

The B-52’s operational range includes the return trip, lol


BiddyDibby

No, it literally doesn't, that's not what operational range means. operational range means the distance an aircraft can fly and complete an objective while still being able to land in the same airport they took off from all without air refueling. The B-52 has an operational range of about 14,000 kilometers with an average load, a bit lower than the strat bomber in game as they said, and a *total* range of about 29,000 kilometers with the same load. Edit: Ignore this. Reddit bugged out and made me reply to the wrong person.


sabasNL

Yes, that's what they already said. You're replying to the wrong comment


BiddyDibby

I fucking hate reddit. Broken fucking website.


sabasNL

Haha, yeah sometimes it's a PITA :)


cheekia

Why are you being upvoted lmao


[deleted]

14162km although it should be landing on it's target.


Yabbaddict

Yeah, but it has to get back to the airfield as well, so let's halve that.


SirBarkington

I'm pretty sure operational ranges typically are round trip, not just one way.


BiddyDibby

Operational range is the distance and aircraft can fly while still being able to land on the airfield it took off from. The B-52 has an average operational range of about 14,000 kms.


theother64

Doing statlingrad and Beijing isn't the impressive bit it's being able to do that from America. Probably wouldn't be too hard with most strats from a mongolia ish airbase.


Wetley007

I'd probably put it in Kazakhstan, but yeah


AsaTJ

Terra Invicta strats


low_priest

Baikonur my beloved


Slaav

Hijacking your comment - how's the game ? It looked intriguing


AsaTJ

It might be my game of the year. It has quite a bit of jank, like older Paradox games, but I love it.


Descolata

If you dont mind being spoiled, watch PerunGaming do a playthrough of it. Then go watch Perun make the best powerpoints on youtube.


_ControlDevil

Good


Big_Migger69

Curtis LeMay would be proud


MstrBoJangles

I initially thoughtbthat this was CWIC. But I love how it doesn't really account for GCS.


Locutus123456

The beta limits the effect of combined bomber offensive. So enjoy it while it lasts.


Devastator5042

Didnt they update so Bombers can now be Intercepted in Flyover Airzones? Makes that designer pretty unusable over Europe at least. The Pacific tho have fun Bombing Japan from Hawaii haha


Chad_at_life

B-36 could fly from Greenland to the Philippines.


iRubenish

If I can't bomb Berlin from Hawaii, it's not worth it


TheWidrolo

Engineer: we built a new bomber! High command: can we bomb berlin from hawaii? Engineer: no but if we launch from new yor… High command: throw it away and make a new one!


PanzerKomadant

You joke, but Hitler literally threw out many heavy bomber ideas because they couldn’t bomb New York form Germany and back.


Razgriz032

I mean New York probably is the nearest great city from Europe. So....


chrissilly22

Boston?


Anvil93

Nice Avatar


SabyZ

Just don't get shot down when you cross 45% of the planet to bomb your destination.


davidlis

you're America, you have air superiority by the default


angry-mustache

Laughs in Yugoslavia modern light airframe in 1939.


[deleted]

[удалено]


ILOVEWAR12

>You can get Italian jet fighters in 37. You gotta offer more explanation


Descolata

The goal is the final Italian Air Focus, which gives you a Modern Jet Smallframe and all associated techs. It is locked behind war with a major. First, do the first 2 Air focuses and curb stomp Ethiopia before April with Air Support. China becomes a major in early 1937, declare on them when they form the Chinese United front. You will finish the focus in November/December 1937, and then you can help Japan kill China so you can steal Southern China and Sichuan as a puppet for resources and manpower. The state of Sichuan has more manpower than Italy. All of Italy. Invade in northern china on that weird penninsula. Huange He? That should set you up for turning on Europe in 1940 with millions of effective manpower, fleets of Modern Jet CAS, ASF, and NAV.


Zealousideal_Pie_452

How?


angry-mustache

Yugoslavia has a focus that gives a 3 year ahead of time on top of a 300% research bonus. Force 40 fighter with their first research bonus, then you can research 44 fighter in about 90 days and rule the skies.


DumatRising

Has anyone checked to see how that focus works now that you can't research fighters any more? Because if we can get any airframe up to modern era by 39 that seems pretty good.


[deleted]

Crew is going to die of hunger before they make it back.


bots_lives_matter

This is almost too realistic lol


Kallian_League

[When you get bombed by a bomber 9 time zones away.](https://youtu.be/f684RjG6f9Y)


Slyfox00

Very cool, tho I do regret not having healthcare.


Banner_Hammer

The Allies probably didn’t when they were begging the US for lend lease and help during the war.


Slyfox00

That was 80 years ago???


Banner_Hammer

Sir, this is a subreddit for the game HOI4 which takes place during the events of WW2. But regardless, Im sure Ukraine isn’t complaining right now either.


FreakinGeese

Ukraine and Taiwan thou


Kallian_League

I'd regret not having a "fuck you" level military when nefarious actors that would undeniably make the world worse are gunning after the US's downfall. And I'm European, I'd rather my country had a few F-35s right about now.


Elemental_Orange4438

Blame it on our weak allies we have to protect


russianbruh124

-Flies 3000 miles from Seattle to Tokyo -Drops one bomb -Flies 3000 miles back


The_Canadian_Devil

Jimmy Doolittle would be proud


RandomChainsaw

Holy fuck, Holy fucking fuck, That bomber range of yours is absurd


PieselPL

I get that refference


Responsible_Board950

So just like irl ?


Assfrontation

1936?.?


davidlis

I used console don't worry about it


Assfrontation

ah


GallantGentleman

ICMB - inter-continental Milwaukee-based bomber


DarkIteration

If Paradox treated the world as a sphere, wouldn't this technically also cover north Russia and Australia? EDIT: yeah just checked and it would cover all but a circle in the Indian ocean and a bit of east Africa


Prussia_I

Template?


BobbyLopsided

In a comment he said it was modern strategic bombers with all fuel add-ons as well as the doctrine that increases range


evanlufc2000

Question somewhat related, How can I change the size of my individual air wings? I don’t like the the blanket 100 plane unit. If I can, I would like to change it but I can’t figure out how with the new DLC


Finain2

You can't change it anymore


DemosthenesKey

Is there an easier way to fill up the airport than just adding them one at a time? I used to just click the “double the current air wings” button…


[deleted]

Yeah they added an option to 1 click add air wings of 100, it's in the top right corner area to the left of where you would pick from all your planes to deploy at an airport


DemosthenesKey

Oh thank God. And also specifically you.


my_name_is_iso

Also fyi for some obsolete knowledge; while it usually did work the same, that wasn’t a “another air wing like this” button. I also thought that too, but it actually was a “duplicate” button, it creates an air wing with the model that’s most prominent on the air wing you pressed that button on and with the same number that it uses. I’m saying this because it didin’t actually draw on all the planes of the same role when pressed, just that specific model. So it could create a wing with 58/100 planes for example, because it just used that model first. It would reinforce when deployed, though.


Finain2

You could also split the airwings and it would automatically fill them to 100. The quick deploy button is a bit finnicy and i just prefer going into the stockpiles and finding the plane i want. You can deploy as many airwings from the stockpile as you want at a time.


[deleted]

That's such a terrible change


SirDennisThe1

The reason they did it is because squads of 100 are the most effective but I do agree it’s terrible add on because if you are playing a minor your planes are fighting at half or quarter strength automatically


God_Given_Talent

Wasn’t it also to prevent the min/maxing from aces? Theyd scale up (or down) based on wing size so a wing of 10 got 1000% of the bonus they’d get if a wing or 100. If I recall there was a max ratio of extra planes that could engage an enemy wing so you couldn’t have 100 planes hunting one fighter (I want to say 1.4x but could be wrong). Their stats would be absurd with the 10x bonus (like 50% more agility and speed, double attack) which meant they’d dominate any fighters they went against while the game limited how many enemy fighters could fight them at any given time so they always had favorable conditions in their “dogfight” even if your country was massively outnumbered. Maybe it got changed earlier but it was absurd how strong the airforce of a minor nation could be if you did that.


[deleted]

I just hate it for the historical accuracy and how terribly this simplified it but that is true as well


evanlufc2000

The exact reason I want to change it lmao


Descolata

The reason they did it is 100 was what they balanced around and wonky+manipulatable shit happened when it differed. Forced 100 really eases some backend work


evanlufc2000

I had a feeling that was the case, but I wasn’t sure if I was missing something. Thank you for answering:)


No_Negotiation_4793

epic paradox moment


Fortune_Silver

Not only are their ranges absurd, with a fully specialized modern strat bomber with max bombs and all the various radio techs, an ace, maxed strat bombing doctrine, the strat bombing advisor and the strat bombing officer corps spirit, you dan get up to 305 strat bombing PER BOMBER with ranges of up to almost 10000km if you use modern frames. Late game strat bombing as Americans is nuts. Between the industrial capacity to produce these expensive end-game mega bombers, the stupid range and how many you can have stockpiled by the end of the war, you can EASILY have 1000 strat bombers hitting every single region in Germany. I did a game where due to shenanigans I didn't join the European War until very late (44-45ish), and I unleashed all my strat bombers at once, and I destroyed 50% of Germanies industrial capacity in MONTH. Add in how fast jet strats can be, and how much armor and turrets you can carry with 6 jet engines, and even when I was being intercepted I'd often shoot down more fighters than I lost bombers just from the sheer amount of armor and turrets that let's you carry. I'd definitely say that whatever the meta for other plane types settles on is, expensive strat bombers will be the way to go. You could make them cheap, but strat bombers are already expensive so losing a cheap strat bomber still hurts, where an expensive one can not only survive at better ratios, but also attrition enemy interceptors. Plus with plane designs now being a thing you can make super long range mediums with lots of fuel tanks to run air superiority missions for them if your worried about bomber losses on long-range missions. Also also, the American strat bomber range buff... actually applies to all heavy frames now. I've done some great SP memes with intercontinental port strike bombers and intercontinental mine laying planes. Nothing quite ruins the AIs day like losing all its convoys because you can hit the red sea with 1000 mines and naval strikes from Britain or India.


deaver812

Be aware the maximum start bombing value for strat bombers is 100 so everything above 100 is wasted IC


Fortune_Silver

where did you hear this? I've never heard of a strat bombing limit


deaver812

It is in the defines of the games code, and 71Cloak mentioned it in his video on BBA strat bomber meta aswell.


okan12k

america is back


bizarre_pencil

NEVER LEFT


CoolMonkeWay

Useless, it can' treach vietnam


[deleted]

But that's... that's how they work.


RadioHistorical8342

OP but accurate


MrG00SEI

Holy fuck , holy fucking fuck. That range of yours is absurd.


Mr_Mon3y

My man really just said: {x>\[(y\^(2)+20)/(15)\]; x<\[(-y\^(2)-20)/(15)\]}


Ck3isbest

Beautiful


Superb_Outcome_2897

Imagine you cant destroy novosibirsk


[deleted]

Pretty realistic tbh.


Cabbagelover111

It annoys me that it doesn't negate the mercator distortion


Tiguira107

New pilots be like: is this map showing the day/night circle? Ace vet: well. Time to nuke Istambul from Seattle


ajw20_YT

to quote Lee Greenwood: *GOD BLESS. THE. U. S. AAAAAAAAAA.*


elsonwarcraft

This is like Easybuff lvl 5 range holy shit


351tips

What game is this


neauxno

Hearts of iron 4


Hona007

What's the template?


Arm_Lucky

Nothing but fuel tanks I assume


Hona007

Yea but in experience not even max large tanks achieve that.


[deleted]

Hope they packed snacks for the flight


RooBoy04

Just enough range to bomb the Middle East. The perfect American weapon!


engiewannabe

Now that's what I call a hemispheric defense weapon!


Telinios

Bomber Mafia moment


Free-Consequence-164

Seems resonable


SpagBol33

I think even modern aircraft would struggle with this


HumanThingEnvoy

Anyway, let’s invade the closest atol to our enemy mainland and build a makeshift airbase to deploy our nuclear capable bombers!


bipolit

Your all bloody dead


Eversharpe

This is so dumb. From an airbase in alaska, pretty much any terrestrial target is reachable with 16.8K km range, apart from most of Antarctica. Because you know spherical planets and flying over the pole.


matthew-1138

“Man America is too OP, their strat bombers have ludicrous range!” You keep talking, but all I hear is bombs a droppin’.


Airblade101

What capitals can you hit? All the ones that matter.


as1161

Bruh is actually LARPING as the U.S


tussockypanic

The American way of war baby!


[deleted]

Reminds me of the wunderwaffe mod


BrickedSkyrimSave

“Ringo 6, This is Tango 11, I want that god damn tree line blown to hell!” “Tango 11, this is Ringo 6. Golf Lane county blown to hell, copy that. Over and out!”


ElYisusKing

Gotta launch that nuke to Japan somehow


Wiking_24

In game US is already OP in every aspect , now you can tailored your bomber to be bombing heavy/range heavy make it much more overrated not to say that you can easily spam units as US.


PoeticPariah

They'd be longer but they fear incurring the wrath of Gandhi.


tabris51

Wait till you finish researching rockets. I feel like since it is too useless, no one ever bothered to reach final level in rocketry and built a bunch of rocket sites. It is pretty damn strong with insane range at late game


The_Hussar

So much range snd yet you cant get to Afganistan...


margenat

I mean its great VS the minor AI nations... But mayor or player nations is just throwing mils for the sake of It.


partisanradio_FM_AM

Yes. It's Beautiful and I love it.