Page 17 - Air Fields News Today

Involvement from the start. much more from the arabs and much more from ou european allies who are neighbors there. for example, italy has a substantial air force and air fields nearby. they could have done a lot more. egypt is right next door. the egyptian air force alone was quite capable of imposing a no-friday zone. what does it mean to turn it over to nato? it means turning it overrom us to us. we are nato. the commander-in-chief of nato is a u.s. admiral. and we will maintain -- >> althoug...

Loyal to libyan leader, moammar gadhafi. and what youre hearing there, just some of the anti-aircraft fire we heard in the last hour in libyas capital, tripoli. you heard it here as we were talking to nic robertson. still no sign of coalition aircraft, though. no clue, really what they were shooting at. at present, about seven nations actively involved in whats now known as operation odyssey dawn. its aim of course to force the libyan leader, moammar gadhafi, to abide by a united nations autho...

After french, u.s., and british planes pounded critical targets in his country. we promise you a long-drawn war and patience that has no limit and belief, deep belief. we are not disturbed. we are not worried. we are not afraid. >> the strikes have taken out most of libyas air defense systems and air fields. libyan troops near benghazi also were hit. richard? the perspective of what its actually like on the ground, the situation at the moment in libya. we needed to talk to someone who is livin...

Supply lines. >> right. >> what about communications? have we been able to take out any of that? >> we have focused on mostly his air defense capability and air fields. certainly his command and control, what this will allow us to do right now is to get other capabilities where we can jam his communications and do those kinds of things. so this is -- i think as was pointed out yesterday, yesterday was a furst phase first phase o very complex operation. again, he gets a vote here. what depends in...

Candy? >> thanks. we want to get the latest on the u.s. military side. we bring in chris lawrence, joining us from the pentagon. chris, what so far have been the results of about 24 hours worth of military activity in and around libya? >> well, pentagon officials are saying they have degraded colonel gadhafis ability to attack any jets that are flying. and i think thats why you saw admiral mullen come out and say, yes, the no-fly zone has started to become established around the area of benghazi...

Initial operations have been very effective, taken out most of his air defense systems, some of his airfields. yet, there is still, i think, a great deal to be done. >> so they will take out more air fields? >> well see. weve seen some of that. we also struck some of his forces on the ground into the vicinity of benghazi. he was attacking benghazi yesterday. so put a halt to that at least temporarily. and now well look to cut off his logistics lines. he has his forces pretty well stretched from ...

Remote locations and less likely to be taking place right near the city of say tripoli or other more populated cities? >> i dont think very many anti-air defenses are right in the middle of the downtown area. the defenses would generally be around air fields, around military targets. so the idea of the tomahawk is to go in early. take out the early warning radars. take out the surface-to-air missiles. take out any airplanes that they can identify on the runways. and that allows the next wave of ...

There is more, but you can hear that thunder, about 300 yards from me. >> geraldo: this asa fox news alert. the first phase of the war against the gaddafi regime in liba. a massive attack on his air defenses and air fields. these have been an unqualified success. a pentagon official telling fox news those strikes, 114 cruise missiles hitting more than 20 targets on libyas med terrainin coast have, quote, severely disabled gaddafis surface air missile capability, making possible phase two of the ...

Theyre ever going to be a formidible force. its terrible to say this sort of thing but this is mostly a show of force, solidarity by european and middle eastern allies and im afraid not much more. theyre doing a great job of destroying tanks, command and control, air fields even, aircraft of gadhafi, but in the end the rebels need a lot of things that cant be delivered to them by precision-guided munitions. >> so at some point, general mccaffery, do you anticipate some country whether its france...

Prosecuting intended purpose. >> the record is very good at keeping people from flying around in a no fly zone. you knock out the anti-aircraft capability, knock out command and control and communications capability and you knock out the air fields. the end of air strikes. that doesnt necessarily mean the good guys are going to win. indeed, the rebels are so bereft of leadership and weapons they are not likely to win, even absent gadhafis capability to pommel them with artillery and aircraft. an...