This was the US response to the massive hoodie attack on March 15th.

In the early morning of March 16th, the US decided to let the hoodies know this fight was far from being finished.

Beginning just after midnight, the US continued their offensive against secondary targets not hit in the first day of battle.

But little did the Americans know, the Hoodies had one last trick up their sleeve.

At approximately 12:30 in the morning of March 16th, the crews aboard both the Stout and the Jason Dunham were unfased by the previous night’s attack.

Right on schedule, they both let loose with a volley of Tomahawk missiles.

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With this strike, the Hoodies have now lost their primary base to launch small boats and unmanned surface drones.

But while this was a big deal, the US was just getting started this morning.

Back in Turkey, the B1 bombers that attacked Yemen 12 hours before had returned to base where they refueled and rearmed and got the birds back in the air with a fresh crew, a belly full of fuel, and a new target.

At approximately 4:15 that morning, the B1’s let loose with another volley of AGM 158 Jassum.

With its standoff distance of at least 370 km, depending on the range, these bombers have nothing to worry about with Hoodi air defenses still in complete disarray.

In fact, with virtually every hoodie air defense battery down, the only weapons the hoodies could possibly shoot back with are manportable systems like the Soviet Eagla or truckmounted ZSU cannons.

But without any radar, the highest distance these weapons could even think about hitting is about 8,000 ft.

With a max service ceiling of 60,000 ft, these bomber pilots have nothing to worry about.

But little did they know, this attack on one of the Hood’s main UAV bases would have huge consequences in less than 24 hours.

After the B1 bombers drop their payloads and head back to base, several of these F-35C’s of the Black Knights take off from the decks of the Harry S.

Truman just after sunrise and begin screaming toward the coast for the next target of the morning.

This consisted of two weapon storage facilities in the Marie Governet that the F-35s blew up without even as much as getting a peep out of the hoodies.

However, this was because the hoodies were saving their ammunition for something else.

Just as lunch began for the crews on board the Truman Strike Group, combat watch standers on board the Gettysburg saw a familiar sight, inbound air contacts.

Except this time there were a lot more of them.

While the hoodies had fired two Almandab 2 missiles at the strike group yesterday, today they decided to give the strike group everything they got all at one time.

In an attempt to overwhelm the US air defenses, the Hoodies agreed instead of a peacemeal attack, they would single out one ship and launch a massive strike against it, hoping for a hit.

And that ship just so happened to be the Gettysburg.

As the Gettysburg’s crew began hooking tracks and selecting weapons, the ship’s tactical action officer soon realized there was a math problem.

Although the SIP’s spy radar can track up to 200 targets at a time, it can only engage 12 to 18 of them at a time.

With at least 12 inbound missiles coming at them, the TAO did not want to risk losing track of slower threats like drones that could come in behind the missile barrage while their attention was diverted.

That’s when he came up with a genius plan.

At that moment, the cruisers captain, who was more senior than the other ship captains, took tactical command of the group and ordered the Stout and Jason Dunham to fire SM2 missiles at the furthest away tracks, while the Gettysburg dealt with the ones closer aboard.

But while this helped lessen the amount of missiles the Gettysburg would have to shoot down from 12 to 8, it still meant the ship was in a very dangerous situation.

With just a few seconds set a decade, the ship’s captain ordered the crew to fire a single SM2 at each incoming threat for the first six missiles.

This doctrine went against the standard tactical doctrine that calls for at least two missiles per engagement.

But this was real life and not a classroom.

With a probability of hit at around 90% for a non-aircraft target, only a handful of the roughly 10,000 pre-formed metal fragments that make up the SM2 would need to hit the missile to knock it out.

And that is exactly what happened.

On their radar screens, the Gettysburg’s crew could see one target after another get splashed until there were just two left.

However, because the ships needed to conserve SM2s, the captain made a bold, unorthodox decision.

While commanders typically like to engage missiles as far out as possible, about 50 mi is the sweet spot to ensure that they get the best chance of hitting it and have enough time for a second shot.

Even though this would equate to only a few extra seconds in practice.

However, Gettysburg is already running low on SM2s, and they don’t know how long this fight will last.

Although the ship still has 10,000 rounds of 20 mm ammo for its SeaWiz, this is needed for drones.

With its 5-in gun incapable of hitting such a fastmoving target, their only other hope is their RIM 162 evolved sea sparrow missiles known as ESSM.

These missiles come in four missile quad packs loaded into a single vertical launching system cell.

With a launch weight of just 620 lbs, of which only 86 lb is a dedicated fragmentation warhead, the ESSM is much smaller than its SM2 and SM6 cousins.

So, what the heck is it even used for? Thanks to the MK134 rocket motor, the ESSM can travel at Mach 4, which is even faster than the SM6.

However, this speed comes at a cost since it can only travel for about 8.

5 seconds before it runs out of fuel.

This short run time is because the ESSM is known as a point defense weapon.

While there is not a generally agreed upon range for what point defense actually is since it depends on the threats and your capabilities, point defense is usually understood to mean engagement close to you.

With a max range of about 27 miles, this would give the ESSM just about 60 seconds to shoot down the threat and avoid getting back splatter on the ship.

While using an ESSM is usually seen as a last resort, the captain advocates making it an offensive weapon, something never done before.

Although unsure if this will work, the TAO orders the crew to launch two ESSMs at the incoming threats just as they cross the 27m threshold.

The crew braces for shock, but fortunately it works.

Miraculously, the captain’s bold decision paid off, and both threats were knocked out about 10 mi away from the ship.

And now it was time to take the fight back against the Hoodies.

After this attack on the Gettysburg, US Central Command realized they still needed to do more to eradicate Hoodi command and control functions.

It was clear the Hoodies were still putting up some organized resistance and the US had just the perfect weapon to put a stop to that.

Because the US had destroyed all of the hoodie static command posts, the enemy began using mobile ones.

These command posts, essentially just a Toyota pickup with a bunch of radios in the back, were much harder to strike despite their lack of armor.

This is why the Air Force decided to bring in this weapon.

This bomb is known as the GBU53 Stormbreaker.

It is based on the unguided small diameter bomb which has an overall weight of 250 lb and uses just 105 lbs of explosives.

But what makes this weapon special is because of what is on its nose.

This is known as a tri mode seeker.

It gets its name because it has three different modes of operation that it can track targets with.

The first of these is an imaging infrared seeker.

With a 640x 512 highresolution array, it can detect thermal signatures like a truck’s exhaust within 0.

1° of accuracy.

However, because Yemen is mostly desert, tons of sand and dirt are in the air.

Combined with the smoke from the raging fires around the country, this makes it very difficult for an IR seeker to work in this environment.

That is where the second one comes in.

Known as millimeter wave radar, this 94 gigahertz radar can see through practically any obscurant and still hit the target within a foot of accuracy.

This means no matter the smoke, sandstorms, clouds, or whatever, this mode will see through it all with pinpoint precision.

However, what if the target is moving? That is where the last mode comes into play.

This third option is a semi-active Seeker.

With its internal laser designator, the Seeker acts much like the SM2 in its final phase of flight, except this model can be used for the entire flight since the aircraft is not sending radar data to it while in the air.

With this triple threat option, the pilots can either set it before they take off or allow the bomb to change its course autonomously midcourse depending on weather conditions.

But while we don’t know which option they picked, we do know for sure they took out these mobile command posts.

After conducting other strikes that day, including a Navy P8 Poseidon launching missiles at some training camps, the Hoodies decided it was time to avenge the attack on their drone facilities and remind the Americans they still had plenty to go around.

As the Truman Strike Group sailors were preparing for another round of air strikes after lunch, the escort ships picked up something odd on their radar screens.

While these fast-moving tracks were definitely not aircraft or missiles, the radar was keeping a lock on them.

After adjusting the settings on their spy radar, Watchstanders soon realized that this was a drone swarm and it was coming right for the carrier.

In order to let the escorts save their ammunition, the strike group commander decided to sorty every available F-18 the carrier could muster for emergency flight quarters.

Within minutes, the first F-18s were rolling off deck.

And if you look at their wing tips, you’ll see quite a different loadout from before.

This missile is called the A120 AM RAM.

It is one of the primary air-to-air missiles carried by US fighter aircraft, and today it is going to be used against these drones.

The F-18 Super Hornet can carry up to 10 AM RAMs when in an air-to-air configuration.

This consists of two on the wing tips, six under both wings, and two on the fuselage.

With a speed of four times the speed of sound and a range of nearly 160 km, the AMA is an extremely potent air defense weapon.

Designed to take out enemy fighters, the missile can and has taken down other targets like missiles, balloons, and today drones.

But despite its robust targeting capabilities, including a 40G terminal maneuver meant to throw off even the most experienced pilots, how the heck are the planes able to see what are effectively tiny dots on their screens? Thanks to this system, pilots can track these drones known as the infrared search and track system block 2.

This is a passive long range infrared sensor that detects heat from aircraft engines.

Mounted on a modified centerline fuel tank, the system sensors are powerful enough to detect a ballistic missile at 220 km, a cruise missile at 92 km, and a person-siz UAV at a distance of 148 km.

With tracking UAVs, each unit can get fire control data on up to 12 tracks at one time.

With about 10 aircraft in the air, this is more than enough capability to take this threat head on.

Over the next 7 hours, the US aircraft destroyed wave after wave of drones.

Although the exact number is not known, media reports that it was around several dozen.

At the conclusion of this 7-hour air battle, US commanders are perplexed at how resourceful the enemy appears to be.

This is why in the coming days, the US has a plan to finally bring the hoodies to their knees.

Bye for now.