Beginning in March 2011, American, French, and British aircraft began targeting Qaddafi’s air defense systems. On the first day of the operation, US-guided missile destroyers and submarines fired more than 120 Tomahawk missiles that struck Libyan radar, missile, and command-and-control sites.36 The United States flew B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, which dropped forty-five precision-guided bombs on the regime’s aircraft shelters near Sirte. Additional cruise missile strikes destroyed Qaddafi’s command-and-control facility in Tripoli. NATO aircraft conducted a
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