- 16 hours ago
Nga Lufta ne Kosove
bombardimet e NATO ne serbi
lajmet e Shteteve Perendimore
bombardimet e NATO ne serbi
lajmet e Shteteve Perendimore
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Short filmTranscript
00:00... and returning, eating and sleeping through their mission,
00:03having done it many times before in practice.
00:06You don't fly a B-2 on a long-duration sortie
00:09until you've proven that you can do it in the simulator,
00:12including your sleep cycles.
00:13Because you can't just get in a plane and, when you both get tired,
00:16decide who's going to get a nap.
00:18Tonight, the Air Force is busting its buttons over the debut of the B-2,
00:22and what they're saying is battle-tested confirmation
00:25that practice makes perfect.
00:27Jim Axelrod, CBS News, Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.
00:32There ahead are military analysts, retired U.S. Air Force General Buster Glosson.
00:36General, give us an analysis of what the NATO forces have done so far
00:39and what they will be trying to do in the days immediately ahead.
00:43Well, Dan, they've primarily focused on the air defenses
00:45and the factories that build military equipment,
00:47and they will continue to do that to a certain extent in the supply depots.
00:51However, the Serb Army, as you said, and security forces continue to burn villages
00:55and kill ethnic Albanians.
00:57So I'm quite sure that you'll see us bombing more barracks today than you did yesterday.
01:01You'll also see us taking out some of the supply-line bridges,
01:05railroad bridges and road bridges, to isolate Kosovo,
01:09so we then can very systematically destroy that land force tank by tank
01:14or barrack by barrack if necessary.
01:16But one of the biggest problems they're going to be facing, Dan,
01:19in the near future is not Milosevic, but the weather.
01:22The front that is currently over Italy is going to move over the Adriatic,
01:26cover Kosovo in clouds and snow starting Saturday for about two or three days.
01:31So our will will be tested.
01:33But there will not be any impact to the eventual outcome if we just remain patient.
01:39We will provide that knockout blow to that Serbian force.
01:43General, thank you.
01:44...were rounded up by Belgrade police and taken to the station.
01:48After nearly four hours, they were released.
01:51But it basically set into motion an order to leave the country.
01:55Within 24 hours, journalists were packing their equipment
01:58and getting ready to leave Yugoslavia.
02:00Police made several visits to the hotel, confiscating equipment
02:05and encouraging everyone it was time to pull out.
02:08Late in the afternoon, it was official.
02:11The government said all international journalists
02:13from countries where NATO was based would be asked to leave.
02:17The trip to the border was a nervous ride.
02:20The second night's airstrikes were scheduled to start within 15 minutes.
02:24There have now been two strikes over Yugoslavia
02:27from the northern tip to the southern area near Kosovo.
02:30Hitting military targets the first time around at least 40 different locations,
02:36including airports, barracks, ammunition dumps, supply centers.
02:41Just how many more days and nights of bombing it will take in Yugoslavia
02:45is an open question.
02:48Tom Mintier, CNN, on the Croatia-Yugoslavia border.
02:52...of a lot of villages and rounding up prominent civilians,
02:56taking advantage of the absence of international observers.
02:59The situation that I'm hearing about in Kosovo at least is really quite grim.
03:04I'm very worried about it.
03:05In Pristina, Vettan Saroy, one of the four Kosovar signers of the Rombouye Accords,
03:10has gone into hiding, say humanitarian groups,
03:13after his newspaper offices were destroyed and the doorman killed.
03:17And the headquarters of the party of leading Kosovar moderate Ibrahim Rugova
03:21was burned to the ground, eyewitnesses say.
03:23Also in Pristina, a human rights lawyer, Bahram Kelmendi,
03:27was abducted during the night along with his two teenage sons
03:30by Serbian paramilitary gunmen, according to Human Rights Watch.
03:34In the town of Djakovića, a prominent doctor, Izet Hima,
03:38has also been abducted, according to humanitarian officials.
03:41And in the small town of Obransa, ten men were executed,
03:45according to Rugova party officials.
03:47The war in Kosovo has now entered a new phase.
03:50Serbian forces have begun to abduct and execute the professionals,
03:58intellectuals, political leaders, and others in a number of places throughout Kosovo.
04:07As darkness fell on Yugoslavia,
04:09so did more than 20 cruise missiles launched from U.S. warships.
04:12America's most accurate weaponry has been taking a toll
04:16on military buildings and equipment across Yugoslavia.
04:19But NATO still has to soften up air defenses
04:22before it can make headway in its ultimate goal,
04:25stopping the Yugoslav army in its tracks.
04:28What we are doing is targeting his integrated air defenses
04:31and to take those down so that our aircraft can go in in greater numbers
04:36with other types of munitions and start to go after those military targets
04:41that allow him to wage this kind of assault against the Kosovo-Arobanians.
04:44So far, NATO airstrikes have concentrated primarily on air defenses,
04:48including airports where some of the Yugoslav air force
04:51has been destroyed on the ground.
04:53But increasingly, the Pentagon says future targets
04:56will be military bases and the troops they support.
04:59As airstrikes continue, you could expect that there would be a focus
05:05on achieving a more aggressive focus on achieving our goal.
05:12Sources say two B-2 stealth bombers were again used Thursday night
05:16because of their effectiveness in their combat debut on night one.
05:20In fact, sources say more B-2s may be added to the mix
05:23if, as expected, the weather worsens over the next few days
05:27because of the radar-evading planes' ability to drop bombs
05:30which are unaffected by cloud cover because of their satellite guidance.
05:34President Milosevic and his military leaders should understand
05:38that there is no sanctuary for them, their military forces,
05:45their command and control elements as this campaign continues.
05:49After two nights of bombing, Yugoslav forces have offered only token resistance,
05:54firing ineffective anti-aircraft guns at the attacking NATO planes
05:58but not launching any dangerous surface-to-air missiles.
06:01It could be the airstrikes have blinded parts of the system
06:04or that the Yugoslavs are holding their fire
06:07in hopes of luring Allied planes into a trap.
06:10And since USF-15s and a Dutch F-16 shot down three Yugoslav MiGs the first night,
06:16no more have challenged NATO jets.
06:18Pentagon sources say the second night of attacks was of similar intensity to the first.
06:23We're not yet at the tank-busting stage,
06:25is the way one military officer put it,
06:27a reference to the next phase, hitting troops and...
06:30Officers have not allowed interviews with pilots at the airbase,
06:34but as the aircraft which flew the initial missions were being readied for another attack,
06:38reporters were permitted to talk to a specially selected group
06:41of the ground support personnel who are keeping the planes flying.
06:45It is, they all agreed, not much different than what they had been trained for,
06:48not the work anyway,
06:49but all felt moods change as routine operations shifted to real conflict.
06:54The site here was awesome, jet after jet taking off,
06:58just knowing that all those jets are going up to do something, it's pretty exciting.
07:06It was the period between the time the planes took off
07:08and the time that they returned, which several said was the most tense.
07:12Our prayers are with them.
07:14We have every confidence that at every layer,
07:17every person that's touched that jet has done his or her best to do what needs to be done,
07:24but any time one of our people goes in harm's way, there is some nervousness.
07:31But handling the sophisticated weaponry meant to destroy brings about its own concerns.
07:36Some reflect upon their jobs in terms of the good NATO believes it is trying to do.
07:41Overall, we are helping people, so I think it's a good thing.
07:45But for one of those charged with actually loading the bombs on the planes,
07:49the initial attack was a time to pray.
07:51Yes, sir. I did. I prayed for the pilots and the Kosovaars and the Albanians.
07:56I mean, I wish that they could reach an agreement without any destruction whatsoever.
08:03Still, more destruction is in the offing.
08:05For those on the ground, this new mission may soon itself become routine.
08:09And the support personnel tell us that, at least from a maintenance standpoint,
08:15there's no reason why these operations can't continue indefinitely.
08:18Talene?
08:19All right, Jim.
08:21The point is that the B-52s here have just started taxiing.
08:24If I just move out of the way, perhaps you can see one of those planes behind me.
08:28Two of them have already headed off down to the end of the runway to get in their position for launch.
08:33We can see, just behind some of those buildings now, a third one moving off.
08:38And behind that, I can see a fourth one.
08:41So it looks as if most of this squadron is on the move.
08:44One of the planes actually behind me here has had one of the engines removed,
08:48one of its eight Pratt & Whitney engine.
08:50So I imagine that one may be staying on the ground, but the others are certainly on the move.
08:54Andrew, the first indication we have that airstrikes were happening at all in this conflict
08:58was the take-off of these huge aircraft.
09:02What is the time scale? How long does it take to get there?
09:06Well, you're right, yes.
09:07The first indication of an airstrike was here at RAF Fairfurt on Wednesday
09:10when, at about a similar time, the planes took off.
09:14Perhaps they're moving off just a little earlier today.
09:17If they fly directly towards Serbia and Kosovo, they could reach there in two or three hours.
09:22Certainly what happened last time is that they took a much more indirect route.
09:26We don't quite know what that route was.
09:28But they flew for several hours, five or six hours,
09:32before launching their missiles from a range of several hundred miles.
09:35And they launched those missiles from somewhere over the Mediterranean.
09:38So it could be that they take off now, fly around,
09:41and then launch their missiles later on this afternoon
09:44so that they will hit at about dusk.
09:48And obviously those on the ground are going to be assessing
09:50the damage caused in the more recent raids.
09:53That's right.
09:55Presumably by now the pilots who are on board the planes today
09:58will have had some indication of how those initial launches went.
10:02I've spoken to a U.S. journalist, a newspaper journalist,
10:05who was on those planes when they went on the raid.
10:08And he said how his plane launched five missiles on that day.
10:12We saw the cruise missiles being loaded onto these planes yesterday.
10:17They're called CALCUM, conventional air-launched cruise missiles.
10:20Each one of these planes, we believe,
10:22is carrying eight of those missiles internally in their bomb bay.
10:26And these missiles have a range of some 600 miles.
10:30Andrew, I mean, we've been seeing pictures of these things,
10:32but unless you're actually standing up next to one of them,
10:35you can't appreciate the sheer size of them, can you?
10:37Yes, these planes are an enormous beast with their eight engines.
10:42They're very old planes as well.
10:44These planes are nearly 40 years old.
10:46They were first used in anger in the Vietnam War
10:49when they carpet bombed some of the sights there.
10:52But though the airframe is very old,
10:53the technology they're carrying is very modern.
10:56We saw some pictures from inside the cockpits the other day,
10:59and you could see the control stick.
11:02The metal had actually been worn away with so many pilots' hands.
11:05So a very old plane, but updated continually.
11:09Andrew, the fact of this is that they are effectively at war.
11:13They are on a mission to destroy and perhaps to kill.
11:17The RAF we know has psychiatrists and people to deal with pilots and those involved.
11:21Does the U.S. Air Force have a similar arrangement?
11:25I would imagine they do.
11:26We were speaking to some of the pilots yesterday,
11:28and of course this was the question we were asking them.
11:30How do you feel knowing that the missiles you carry deliver death and destruction at the other end?
11:38And what they said is that they try to avoid thinking of the consequences.
11:41They're there to do a job.
11:43They do it to the best of their ability.
11:45And they try not to think of the consequences.
11:47But if you press them on that, some of them will say,
11:50well, we hope that what we're doing will help end the crisis in Kosovo.
11:54That perhaps there will be some collateral damage, as they call it, some civilian casualties.
11:59But perhaps that will stop a greater tragedy happening in Kosovo.
12:04The whole strategy.
12:05Absolutely.
12:06They'll go off somewhere.
12:07And anyway, they're going to launch.
12:08If they launch cruise missiles again, they will launch them from quite a standoff range.
12:13The Serbs won't actually see them even on their radar because they'll be so far away.
12:17And the interesting thing that Andrew was saying about staying in service until 2045,
12:21they're actually about to get new engines at the moment.
12:24And Rolls-Royce are a candidate to put the same engines that are on the aircraft
12:28that you and I go on holiday on, on these aircraft, to keep them going.
12:32The engines that we already have, although I know that it's still sketchy at this early stage
12:36because of the sensitivity of the whole thing.
12:38Tell us about how these might have been used in last night or night before the economy.
12:42The aircraft, it carries a large number of air launch cruise missiles.
12:47They're very similar to the ones which are fired from the submarines, like HMS Splendid,
12:49and from the warships of the US 6th Fleet.
12:53They can be launched at various altitudes and go off and find their target.
12:57They're totally autonomous once they go.
12:59They use a global positioning system, which is a satellite-based navigation system.
13:03And they have a little map which is built into computer in them.
13:06They're very expensive pieces of equipment.
13:08They're almost as expensive as a fighter airplane.
13:11And they're probably a lot more expensive than the B-52 that we see flying there.
13:15And they can take up to, that's 12 of them.
13:17Well, that's the last plane away.
13:19Where will they be heading? Do we have any idea?
13:21Well, I should imagine they'll go out now, out of the commercial airline routes around the United Kingdom,
13:27out over the Atlantic, form up, take some fuel on board.
13:31It takes quite a lot of fuel to get them off the ground.
13:33You can see the amount of exhaust coming out from those eight Pratt & Whitney engines there.
13:37Then they will be taking on board fuel.
13:39And then we'll see them, they'll go off to somewhere over the Mediterranean, I would guess.
13:46His mood was fairly somber, but obviously there was an adrenaline rush.
13:51He was confident that they had produced the results that were required.
13:56And very positive about the night's events.
13:59The impact of the NATO attack was clear on the ground.
14:02Although these pictures are from an unknown location in Serbia, the effects appeared fairly extensive.
14:08The aircraft and naval forces were once again involved in airstrikes against military targets in Yugoslavia.
14:16Six Royal Air Force Harriers attacked explosive ammunition storage buildings within a military barracks at Leskovac, shown on the map.
14:26The targeted barracks was home to an anti-aircraft unit and an infantry unit.
14:33Weapons and equipment stored included anti-aircraft guns and ammunition,
14:38manned portable surface-to-air missiles, target tracking radars,
14:44and large-caliber self-propelled and towed guns.
14:48Such weapons and ammunition are used for point-air defence and offensive ground operations,
14:52and are therefore relevant both to our objective of suppressing the Yugoslavian air defence system
15:00and to our aim of reducing Yugoslavia's capability to repress the Kosovars.
15:07All of our aircraft returned safely to their bases, having completed their missions.
15:13Of the three targets that they attacked, two were successfully destroyed,
15:19as you'll see in a minute from the video camera footage.
15:22One aircraft successfully locked onto the third target,
15:27but as a result of a technical problem, the aircraft didn't release its bombs.
15:33Our aircraft were not attacked by missiles or anti-aircraft fire.
15:39Group Captain Parkinson will now take you through the video.
15:44Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to show you two clips of our films last night.
15:48The Harriers last night flew what we call a cooperative attack,
16:04with one pilot in one aircraft designating the target with his laser pod,
16:08and the other pilot in his aircraft providing the weapons to attack the target.
16:13It may look like a fairly simple procedure when you watch this film,
16:18but I should remind you that the Harrier pilot is in an extremely complex environment
16:23when he's carrying out this attack.
16:25He's required to fly in formation with the other aircraft,
16:29he's required to look out for attacks from the air,
16:32he's required to look at the ground for signs of launch of surface-to-air missiles,
16:37but most importantly, he's required to monitor his airborne electronic warfare warning equipment,
16:45which will continuously alert him if he is attacked.
16:49Could we show the first film, please?
16:50This is the picture the pilot would see when he first selects weapon aiming.
17:02He's still several minutes out from weapons release at this stage,
17:05and his responsibility is to...
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