You are at netAirspace : Forum : Air and Space Forums : Military Aviation

Nixon launched it, Carter killed it and Reagan resurrected it. In its infancy, the Air Force's B-1 bomber was a quick and dirty military metaphor - Republicans wanted to buy weapons to defend the nation from the Soviet Union, and Democrats didn't. Now it could become a different kind of symbol: the Air Force is thinking of retiring its total 66-plane B-1 fleet to hit budget targets set by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Top Air Force officials met behind closed doors late last week to determine if permanently grounding the B-1 fleet makes sense.
Click the linky.

The article mentions the B-2 and the B-52 can carry the 'load', as it were, of the B-1if it does indeed leave the fleet. Now keep in mind I have no idea how many B-52s are left in service, but wouldn't one think the B-1 would be a much more viable (if not efficient) option than the B-52?

EDIT-Grammar...

Has the B-1 ever flown a mission in the gulf?

Airfoilsguy wrote:Has the B-1 ever flown a mission in the gulf?

Yes.

JeffSFO wrote:

Airfoilsguy wrote:Has the B-1 ever flown a mission in the gulf?

Yes.

Kosovo and Afghanistan as well.

bhmbaglock wrote:

JeffSFO wrote:

Airfoilsguy wrote:Has the B-1 ever flown a mission in the gulf?

Yes.

Kosovo and Afghanistan as well.

The B-1 is an effective bomb truck.. Given the fact we aren't presently building any of the mentioned bombers I can't see retiring anything completely.

Back in the mid-1990's, I was deployed to Rhein-Main Air Base, we were flying missions to Bosnia, Croatia, and Italy. After returning from a flight one day, we were refueling and post-flighting the plane. Heard on the radio that an IFE aircraft was inbound, it was a B-1 which had lost the ability to un-sweep it's wings due to a mechanical malfunction. I crawled up onto the center wing area of our C-141 to watch it land.

Approach and landing speeds were insanely fast, touched down perfectly on the runway and came to a stop at the extreme other end, brakes on fire and tires blown. Kept it pretty much straight on the centerline, though and the fire dept did their usual outstanding job and had the flames out in minimal time.

Over the next couple of days, we saw the maintenance recovery team that flew in repair the gear, replace the brakes/tires, and fix the jammed wing gear box.

Wish I had the chance to meet up with that crew and hear their side of the story over a few beers, bet it would have been interesting...

Gunships wrote:Wish I had the chance to meet up with that crew and hear their side of the story over a few beers, bet it would have been interesting...

I'm sure that would make for an interesting chat. Seeing so many F-3s around here, I've often wondered about the potential for mechanical failure in swept-wing aircraft and I'd love to know just how you would land with the wings swept fully back.

The ugly truth about our continued involvement in Afghanistan is that DOD is running out of money. We can't keep all the toys we have on the shelf if we're pissing away millions a day half way around the world.

Again...I wish we knew the costs of operating the B-52 versus the B-1, which if I'm not mistaken, can carry a heavier and more diverse load farther than the BUFF...but since the USAF has 'leaked' these rumors...they probably know much better than I.

GQfluffy wrote:Again...I wish we knew the costs of operating the B-52 versus the B-1, which if I'm not mistaken, can carry a heavier and more diverse load farther than the BUFF...but since the USAF has 'leaked' these rumors...they probably know much better than I.

Several years ago there was talk of re-enging the -52 with 4 X RB.211s... That would have been pure gas...