US Strategic Command boasts about its bombs in disturbing New Year message

The world is ringing-in 2019 with good cheer, but the US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) has a different kind of fireworks in mind. On New Year's Eve, it showed off footage of stealth bombers and big explosions.

STRATCOM’s New Year’s greetings come in the form of a 40-second video of the B-2 Spirit bomber in flight. The aircraft deploys two GBU-57s – huge bunker buster bombs known as Massive Ordnance Penetrators – which hit a target on the testing grounds.

“Times Square tradition rings in the New Year by dropping the big ball… if ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger,” STRATCOM tweeted, referring to the traditional celebration in New York City and it’s dropping crystal ball.

Now-deleted video message from US Strategic Command ©  Twitter / STRATCOM

The bizarre message got almost 2,000 likes and close to 1,000 retweets before it was removed. Just as many people replied – and most of them were not happy, to put it mildly.

“Delete this” was a running theme, while some of the current and former military reacted with “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” which should be read as an acronym.

“This is not funny or cool or inspiring or anything. Just poor taste,” said one commenter, who said his father flew B-52 bombers back in the 1960s.

“Maybe a little more ‘Happy New Year!’ and a little less ‘Watch our powerful bombs of mass destruction’,” another commenter suggested.

There were also the inevitable memes inspired by the cult movie ‘Dr. Strangelove,’ that seemed apropos.

Someone even wondered whether STRATCOM was being racist, not understanding that “Whiteman” is a reference to the Air Force base in central Missouri, home of the B-2.

STRATCOM eventually deleted the tweet and offered an apology, saying it was "in poor taste and does not reflect our values."

Only 21 units of the ambitious Cold War stealth bomber were ever built, at astronomical costs, and fewer than a dozen are currently fit to fly, according to multiple reports.

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