From: vaidyasandeep2000
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2002 4:20 AM
Subject: [no-sanctions] America replaces depleted missiles for an attack on Iraq
America replaces depleted missiles
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor
The Times, March 29, 2002
THE United States has begun a huge restocking of precision-guided
missiles to be ready for an attack on Iraq. Two production lines are
providing laser-guided bombs to replace those launched on Taleban and
al-Qaeda targets.
A spokesman for US Central Command said yesterday that since the
American campaign in Afghanistan began last October, 21,000 bombs and
missiles had been dropped, the bulk of them precision-guided.
Defence sources said there was now a serious shortage of the new
Joint Direct Attack Munitions (Jdam) system, which consists of
special guidance kits that can be fitted to ordinary "dumb" bombs to
make them "smart".
The US Navy, which has carried out many of the attacks in Afghanistan
from aircraft carriers, at one point ran out of Jdams and had to
borrow some from the US Air Force.
An order for 434 Boeing Jdam kits, worth more than £6 million, should
be available by the end of this month.
The US is also pushing ahead with a new Tomahawk cruise missile, the
Tactical Tomahawk, which could be brought into service later this
year. The Tactical Tomahawk can loiter over enemy territory and
choose its own target.
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