Posted on 07/10/2025 8:10:10 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Air Force sees external pylons as key to increasing the B-1's ability to launch standoff strikes ahead of the arrival of the B-21 Raider.
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The U.S. Air Force is moving ahead to add new external pylons onto its B-1B Lancer bombers after years of experimentation. The pylons will enhance the B-1’s already significant ability to carry large and diverse payloads, with a particular eye toward future hypersonic weapons. It is also a hedge against potential delays in the arrival of stealthy B-21 Raiders, which are set to replace the remaining Lancers.
In its recently released proposed budget for the 2026 Fiscal Year, the Air Force is asking for just over $50 million for the External Heavy-Stores Pylon program, which it says is a “new start” effort. There are currently 42 B-1s in active service, according to the latest budget documents. This is in part due to the total loss of one of the bombers in a crash at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota last year. The service is working to plus the fleet back up to 44 aircraft in the upcoming fiscal year.
The “External Heavy-Stores Pylon program expands on the accomplishments of the Hypersonic Integration Program, a Congressional Add, by providing increased carriage capacity of standoff munition [sic] on B-1B aircraft,” the Air Force’s latest budget request explains. “Maximum carriage of existing standoff munitions on the B-1B provides near-term increased volume of fires from standoff ranges and serves to mitigate transition risk of the Air Force bomber fleet prior to the emergence of the B-21 as a combat bomber.”
“The Hypersonic Integration Program successfully demonstrated the B-1’s ability to execute a captive carry of a 5,000-pound class store and the release of a proven weapon shape from a Load Adaptable Modular (LAM) pylon,” the budget documents also note.
How many LAMs each B-1 will be fitted with is unclear. However, Air Force experimentation efforts in recent years have leveraged six existing hard points found on each Lancer, which were originally included in the design to allow the aircraft to carry nuclear-tipped cruise missiles externally. The hard points largely fell into disuse following the post-Cold War decision to eliminate the B-1’s nuclear capabilities, though the bombers do now use one of those stations to carry a Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP).
LAM is a design that Boeing has been working on since at least 2023. The company has said in the past that the pylon can be configured for loads up to 7,500 pounds, but it is unclear what weight limit the Air Force may now be targeting. The funding the service is asking for in the upcoming fiscal cycle looks set to go, in part, to answering that question.
A B-1 bomber carries an inert bomb on a LAM pylon during a previous test. USAF
A closer look at the LAM pylon installation. USAF USAF
A model of the LAM pylon, which Atlantic Models in Miami built for Boeing, loaded with two mock-up hypersonic cruise missiles. Atlantic Models
Conducting “Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) and wind tunnel testing of pylon/weapon combinations” is among the Air Force’s stated goals for the External Heavy-Stores Pylon program in Fiscal Year 2026. The service also hopes to “begin hardware design to include changes to aircraft Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) and wiring” and “begin software updates to recognize pylon stations and weapons.”
With a 7,500-pound rating, the LAM could enable the B-1 to carry the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), a hypersonic weapon designed to launch an unpowered boost-glide vehicle, which you can read more about here. Air Force plans to move ahead with purchases of ARRWs have also notably re-emerged in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal. The service had moved to cancel the AGM-183A in 2023, and refocus resources on the development of the air-breathing Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM), but there were steady signs afterward that there was still life left in the ARRW program. ARRW testing to date has been conducted using B-52 bombers as launch platforms.
A live AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon under the wing of a B-52 bomber. USAF The HACM program is also still ongoing and could be another future addition to the B-1’s arsenal. Past reports have said that B-1s fitted with pylons might be able to carry up to 31 hypersonic weapons, in total, externally and internally.
To date, this is the only picture the US Air Force has released showing an actual air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile test article related to the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) program and/or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) preceding Hypersonic Airbreathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) effort. USAF A hypersonic air-breathing air-launched cruise missile design, or a mockup thereof, is seen here in the foreground. This picture is from what the Air Force described as an ‘orientation’ about the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile at Edwards Air Force Base earlier this year. USAF
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We must construct additional pylons.
Facts:
80% of US nuclear warheads are on US Navy submarines. That leaves 20% for ICBMs and bombers. The overall total is about 1500 so 20% of that is 300.
Because of New START treaty restrictions, our ICBMs were de-MIRVed some time ago. It is now one warhead per silo. We also capped 4 of the launch tubes on our submarines and reveal them periodically to satellite imagery for the Russians to see. Those ARE MIRVed 4:1 which is how the warhead count gets to 1200ish.
Bombers strategic payloads are thus pretty slim. So any adding of armaments to them must necessarily be intended for non nuclear conflict — and in the case of B-1 a theater of air defense not wiped out by nukes and capable of attacking the non stealth B-1.
And so . . .not real clear what the point is here, other than to provide jobs in someone’s district.
Fritz Hollings: “Alan Cranston wants to use the B-1 bomber to deliver the nuclear freeze.”
The last one produced in 1988. The production line is long gone.
Adding the capability to deliver additional long-range cruise or hypersonic missiles is a large extension of capability, not just a jobs program.
Beautiful aircraft reminiscent of the shapes of the B-58, SST, Constellation, etc.
I was stationed at Ellsworth back in the late 70’s, early 80’s.
B58 was like a work of art to me. Awesome aircraft.
Not so easy to fly unfortunately.
They were more organic shapes. The posted B-1 side view with the inert bomb looks like a remora on a shark.
For a trillion dollar defense budget, we could buy more bombers if it weren’t for all the corruption.
In contrast, the B-2 payload is only 40,000 pounds.
The B-21s payload will be even smaller than that.
Adding the capability to deliver additional long-range cruise or hypersonic missiles is a large extension of capability, not just a jobs program.
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Firstly, the US has no hypersonic in-atmosphere missiles. They don’t exist. Maybe they will someday. Who knows? It’s a government project.
As for long range cruise missiles, are there not already several sources of methodology for delivering those? Like Attack subs, B-52s, B-2s, and some are GLCMs, ground launched.
It does!
It’s still the prettiest aircraft flying.
And with the highest payload too.
The B-1b does tonnage like no other.
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