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.
The last one produced in 1988. The production line is long gone.
Beautiful aircraft reminiscent of the shapes of the B-58, SST, Constellation, etc.
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.
It’s still the prettiest aircraft flying.
And with the highest payload too.