B-2 Bomber, the Last US Resort against Yemen’s Ansarullah

Citing some American officials, CNN reported on Thursday night that the US for the first time deployed B-2 Spirit long-range bomber to attack positions of Yemen's Ansarullah that has been operating against Israel in solidarity with Gaza. Yemen official news agency reported that the US and British aggression warplanes bombed Sana'a the capital three rounds.

"This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened or fortified... The employment of US Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers demonstrate US global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere," the US Defense Secretary Lyod Austin was quoted as saying.

On the other side, the Yemenis denied the claim of widespread destruction of their military infrastructure, adding that these attacks targeted mountains and small communication networks in Saada province and empty barracks. In this connection, Nasreddin Amer, the deputy head of the Ansarullah Information Committee, said: "The United States will pay the price for its aggressive attacks, we reiterate our firm position in supporting Gaza and Lebanon."

At the same time, many Western and Arab media exaggerated about this attack and described the use of the B-2 bombers as containing warning messages and having a deterrent role.

The US attack on Yemeni territory is being carried out at a time when the tensions between Iran and the Israeli regime have intensified and the risk of conflict in the region has greatly increased. In the meantime, the media claim that by using advanced bombers against Yemen, Washington is trying to give a signal to Tehran that it is ready to use all its military capabilities to prevent this country from attacking the occupied territories. 

Hisham al-Maqdashi, an expert on Yemeni military affairs, in a conversation with Anadolu news agency, commented on the attack by B-2 bombers, saying: "The United States is sending a message with this action that we still have the ability to access and asymmetric advantage over all our enemies in the region and the world." He added that the US could easily attack Yemen with the F-16 fighter, but the use of the B-2 bomber was a calculated show demonstrating the technological superiority of the US military in the region."

This claim does not match the conditions of the battleground, however. 

B-2 bomber facts 

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is a heavy strategic bomber with low-visibility stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses.

The bomber can launch both conventional and thermonuclear weapons, such as the 80 lb (230 kg) GPS-guided MK82 nuclear bombs or 2,400 lb (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs.

The B-2 is the only certified aircraft in service capable of carrying large air-to-surface weapons in a stealth configuration. The second generation of this bomber has a better radar evasion feature that can be safe against anti-aircraft systems.

The total cost of purchasing this bomber (including manufacturing, spare parts, equipment, retrofitting and software support) is an average of $929 million.

Given the fact that B-2 operations usually last more than 30 hours, dozens of days of maintenance work must be done on them after each mission. B-2 can fly more than 11,000 kilometers with first refueling, and if it is refueled in the air, it can go to any place on earth. This bomber can drop many bombs at an altitude of 50,000 feet ( 15.24 kilometers) from the ground, away from the watch of enemy radars. 

Displaying strength or betraying weakness? 

The new US air attack on Yemen comes as Washington in January ramped up its military presence in the regional waters close to Ansarullah's areas of control in the Red Sea through a naval coalition. Since then, the US went to great lengthes to stop Ansarullah's operations against Israeli interests.

Despite these massive attacks, the Yemenis not only did not retreat from their positions in support of the Palestinian people, but also in parallel with the operations against the occupied territories and commercial ships of the Israeli regime, they also targeted American military equipment. In addition to the downing of the 11 modern American MQ-9 drones, several ships including the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier were also hit in the Red Sea. 

Also, Yemen's resistance movement expanded its Israel target bank. Unveiling drone suicide submarine and hypersonic missiles, Ansarullah brought new surprises to the US and Israel. 

Having said that, in the past year, the US has used every weapon at its disposal to confront Ansarullah and resorting to B-2 bombers to drop heavy bunker buster bombs will make no difference on the battleground that can be considered an effective action.

Certainly, the Resistance camp has not yet used many of its military assets and in parallel with the conditions of war, it unveils new surprises, just as Hezbollah has made the occupied territories more unsafe by using new weapons in the past weeks. The resistance groups in Yemen and Iraq also have these capabilities that they can use all their power with the escalation of tensions, and just as the advanced American ships and drones suffered damage, the B-2 bombers may suffer, too. 

Although some believe that the use of B2 in the attack on Yemen is a warning to Iran, Iranian officials have also warned many times that if Israel and the US want to attack the country's infrastructure, they will pay a heavy price. Iran has shown in Operation True Promise I and II that it has the ability to penetrate the layers of the enemy's defenses and has threatened that the third attack will be far more extensive and may even affect the energy flow from the Persian Gulf. 

B-2 deployment a cover to American despair 

The US attacks by B-2 bomber are not only not a warning to Tehran and the Axis of Resistance, but also to escape from the abyss Tel Aviv and Washington have set in motion, since banning Israeli and Western ships from the Red Sea in the long run will be problematic to the world trade. That is why the White House officials, who have not been able to stop Sana'a attacks, have reached out to Ansarullah to get rid of this situation.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Ansarullah's Supreme Political Council, recently said that "we have received many calls from the United States and Britain to stop our operations in the Red Sea. Air operations of these countries against Yemen will not deter our support to the Gaza people."

Earlier, the US government had sent a message to Ansarullah that it is ready to remove this movement from the terrorist blacklist and provide financial aid to Yemen on the condition that Ansarallah stops its Red Sea attacks. 

These repeated messages by the White House show that the US-led naval coalition is desperate against Ansarullah's attacks despite using modern ships and powerful arms and thinks that it can realize its aims using scary arms. But the fact is that such actions only inflame tensions and it is the Western-Israeli camp that would suffer the most from its warmongering.