Page 74 - Airfields News Today

As weve seen on our visits to the international airport, the military airfield here, the international airport halfway between here and the east of the countries along the mediterranean, these airfields have military installations there, and theyre quite extensive. it would seem to me to be probably implausible to think they had all been damaged by this stage, by the level of bombardment knowing all the different targets being hit. there are so many targets here at the military air bases, it wou...

Consistent overhead coverage with satellite. now thats combined with capabilities from the aircraft to give reconnaisance updates in those airfields. i think you could just about bet money on the generals report. >> what is the next step now that they believe the air forces have been defeated or destroyed? what needs to happen now? >> i think the hard part now is that weve finished the first quarter of this fight, which is to achieve a superiority and a dominance from the air is the forces in co...

How did that happen? >> it happens very quickly. what you see here on the map in front of you is called the theater of operations. libya specifically is the area of operations. these are the airfields where the air flights are coming out of and attacking targets into libya. whats important to understand is this is very busy air space. separation so airplanes dont fly into each other is achieved by vertical distance. its important to know over the atlantic or the western med is where refuelling t...

Defense targets and command and control capabilities that gadhafi has. those attacks were done by cruise missile sills. they are fixed sites and they were done by cruise missiles from submarines and ground launch cruise missiles owned by the coalition, mostly the united states. there were aircraft going after fixed targets as well. >> do we go after the runways to prevent their aircraft taking off? >> we do but we want access as well. so we crater those airfields that need to be taken out. what ...

Strikes. these are, according to the defense department, where some of the strikes are, obviously tripoli, which is where gadhafi is, in benghazi you dont see any strike points on that particular map. we know from our reporting out of our own folks at the pentagon that b-2 bombers were deployed, dropping some 40 bombs against air defense systems within libya. what is the concentration in tripoli versus benghazi? >> i think as you look at that, most of those targets were part of his air defense s...

Those aircraft over time further to the west. but most of those strikes took out his air defenses and hit his airfields. >> is there more to be done to limit his capacity to either attack planes or to attack rebels? >> some of the engagements yesterday included attacking his forces on the ground in the vicinity of ben gghazibenghazi. clearly the objective will be to attack those forces and ensure that they are unable to continue to attack the innocent civilians, which he was doing as recently as...

Early saturday and officials say most of gadhafis air defense systems and airfields have been taken out and libyan ground forces have been hit n an audio statement, aired on libyan television, gadhafi promised to fight back. >> america, france or britain, the question that are, in fact, against us today. they will not enjoy our oil. we will not leave it for them. they have to know that we will fight. >> and an emergency meeting today, the arab league reiterated its support for the no-fly zone ov...

Attacking his own people. multiple missile and air strikes hit targets in eastern libya since the operation was launched 24 hours ago. >> u.s. joint chiefs of staff chairman mike mullen says most of gadhafis air defense systems and airfields have been taken out. libyan ground forces have also been hit. >> the no-fly zone is effectively in place. we have combat air patrol or aircraft over benghazi and we will have them there for on a 24/7 basis. move that to the west and he hasnt flown any aircra...

Missile strikes from coalition forces. cnns nic robertson who is in tripoli, says smoke can be seen rising from the presidential compound. >> american, french and british military forces began these air strikes on saturday the mission is being dubbed operation odyssey dawn, a u.n.-approved operation, intended to stop the libyan leader, moammar gadhafi, from violating a cease-fire and i tacking his own people. >> multiple air and missile strikes have hit military targets. u.s. joins chief of staf...

Staff. thank you for being here. can you give us an assessment of what -- almost 24 hours worth of assault on libya has done to its air defenses? >> we worked hard to plan this in a relatively short period of time. i would say that the no-fly zone is effectively in place. weve got combat air patrol or aircraft over benghazi and well have them there for -- 24/7. and we effect the humanitarian suppo support. so from that stand point, the initial operations have been very effective, taken out most ...