B-1 carries record-setting missile load

A Dyess Air Force Base B-1B Lancer carried a full load of 24 AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missiles on a flight over the Gulf of Mexico, Sept. 7 -- a first for the B-1 and AGM-158.

"The mission was a success," said Maj. Brian Owen, the chief of wing weapons and tactics. "Everything went as planned, and we can verify that the B-1B can in fact operate its full capacity of JASSMs."

The purpose of the flight was to ensure maintainers, ammo and munitions Airmen and B-1 aircrew are proficient in uploading, flying, employing and downloading the AGM-158 JASSM and to test all missile-related processes to see if there's room for improvement. None of the missiles were released during this test; they were system-checked while in the air.

"Maintainers loading 24 JASSMs on one B-1 is a record-setting event," said Senior Master Sgt. Jeff Rud, of 7th Maintenance Group. "It's never been done before. The main reason we're doing this is for training. It's the cornerstone of all we do. It provides us the opportunity to hone our war fighting skills and gives us the opportunity to project our combat capability right here out of Dyess (AFB)."

The B-1 is the most capable JASSM employment platform in the world, Major Owen said.

"We've seen the engineering specs that say it's supposed to work, but it's never been done before," Major Owen said . "What makes the B-1 unique versus the other aircraft around the world is that we can employ these weapons on such a large scale. We can take off with two aircraft and have the capability to strike 48 different targets."

The second most capable aircraft is the B-2 Spirit, carrying 16 JASMMs, followed by the B-52 Stratofortress with 12.

The AGM-158 JASSM is designed to keep the jet and its crew a significant distance away from surface-to-air threats while still holding an enemy's targets at risk.

The AGM-158A is a stealth cruise missile powered by a Teledyne CAE J402 turbojet that uses flip-out wings with control surfaces and a single vertical tail for flight control. It's guided by a jamming-resistant, GPS-aided inertial navigation system and uses an imaging infrared seeker for autonomous pattern-based target selection and terminal homing.

The missile is armed with a 1,000 pound WDU-42/B insensitive munitions penetrating warhead, and accuracy is quoted within 8 feet. It is also equipped with a data link to transmit status and location information until impact, thus assisting in bomb damage assessment.

"I've been in the aircraft maintenance business for more than 24 years, and anytime you have the opportunity to do something first, it is a real morale booster," Sergeant Rud said. "It gives us here at Dyess (AFB) bragging rights, and that goes a long way in terms of building pride in your unit and pride in the aircraft you work on. I have found that people love to do their primary job, whether it's ammo line delivery crews delivering bombs or weapons loaders loading bombs.

"It's in these moments that people get energized when they see their part of an operation come together with the other pieces of the puzzle that makes them feel good about what they do," he said.

This means, I reckon, that a squadron of B-1B Lancers, similarly armed, could ruin a pretty large target?

Well, it depends on your “large” target more than anything else:

Consider a railroad bridge over a river: you MUST hit a 10 foot wide, 200 foot long target exactly, but you only need to hit it once to cut the train traffic off completely. You could drop 200 or 300 bombs, but if they miss, you have failed.

A two-lane road bridge might only be 20 feet wide, but the trucks can easily drive around a single hole in one lane - so three, four, or five hits might be needed to cut traffic off, or one big bomb in the right place that drops the bridge completely. Even so, the next day's trucks might be able to drive down and around through the creek bed avoiding the damaged bridge altogether.

But one very accurate bomb is useless against a oil storage tank farm, a train marshalling yard, a storage depot, a troop concentration, or a truck park: the target is too spread out to be affected by a limited number of bombs, regardless of how accurate and expensive they are. So two B-52’s dropping 80 bombs “large” area target is more effective than even one very, very large bomb dropped from one plane. And the “dumb” bombs are much more effective than 24 very, very expensive cruise missiles dropped off shore from a B-1.

But a armored and buried command center or a power plant turbine building might need a single, very heavy, very accurate bomb to break through and kill the target. Hundreds of “cheap” dumb bombs dropped from many planes are useless because they not only miss the target, but aren't big enough to damage it even if one lands exactly on top of the reinforced concrete.

Same thing with an airport. You only need a small bomb to kill a fighter or missile, but you must place that bomb or cruise missile exactly in the center of the revetment around the target. Miss by 50 feet after a 400 mile plane flight (put the bomb on the wrong side of the revetment or sandbag wall or concrete shelter), and the target isn't damaged at all. So dropping hundreds of bombs when most (if not almost all) will miss the runway and enemy airplanes is useless. Specifically aiming a single small bomb - like from a F-117 or F-21 or F-35 stealth plane - is better than a large scale Vietnam era “alpha strike” with dozens of planes.

Balance all of the above against the "time" it takes to program many different "smart" cruise missile attacks in many different places by your targetting crew mission planners.

The military are always time-limited and intelligence limited: if the target can move you might be more effective striking quickly with "something" (any kind of weapon from any kind of platform)rather than waiting 48 hours and trying to hit it where it used to be with the perfect weapon platform after the perfect pre-launch planning and perfect pre-launch flight brief from a perfectly rested flight crew flying a perfectly prepared aircraft from a perfectly maintained plane flying from a perfectly clean hanger. That is a 20 hour flight time from the target.

Balance all of the above against the "time" it takes to program many different "smart" cruise missile attacks in many different places by your targetting crew mission planners.

These days they just send up the plane to fly around all day. Teams on the ground can radio for air strikes and have GPS accurate bombs hitting the target in minutes. They 'program' them on the fly with a datalink.

But one very accurate bomb is useless against a oil storage tank farm, a train marshalling yard, a storage depot, a troop concentration, or a truck park: the target is too spread out to be affected by a limited number of bombs, regardless of how accurate and expensive they are.

It makes a lot more sense when hitting a tank farm to put one or two accurate bombs into each tank and a couple into a few primary pumping stations. Compared to carpet bombing the area it is far more effective.

The weapon in the article is for stand-off. If you want to just get more accuracy in a more cost-effective way you get JDAMs. Slap a GPS and movable fins on a whole load of formerly dumb bombs and then program them for whatever pattern you want. The B-1 can hold about as many dumb bombs as it can guided ones, depending on what type of guided ones they are.

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