Posted on 05/03/2018 9:17:34 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- The Air Force announced that the B-21 Raider will replace B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit aircraft at three existing bomber bases beginning in the mid-2020s.
The Air Force selected Dyess Air Force Base, Texas; Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota; and Whiteman AFB, Missouri, as reasonable alternatives to host the new B-21 aircraft. Using the current bomber bases will minimize operational impact, reduce overhead, maximize re-use of facilities, and minimize cost, Air Force officials said.
"Our current bomber bases are best suited for the B-21," said Secretary of the Air Force Heather A. Wilson. "We expect the first B-21 Raider aircraft to be delivered in the mid-2020s."
Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, and Minot AFB, North Dakota, will continue to host the B-52, which is expected to continue conducting operations through 2050.
"We are designing the B-21 Raider to replace our aging bombers as a long-range, highly-survivable aircraft capable of carrying mixed conventional and nuclear payloads, to strike any target worldwide," said Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David L. Goldfein.
The Air Force will make its final B-21 basing decision following compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and other regulatory and planning processes. That decision is expected in 2019.
Although the first B-21 are expected in the mid-2020s, the Air Force doesn't plan to retire the existing bombers until there are sufficient B-21s to replace them. The Air Force hasn't determined which location will receive the aircraft first.
1st plane delivery some time in the mid-2020s.
That’s a b-2-f, what gives?
“the B-52, which is expected to continue conducting operations through 2050.”
Awesome. Apparently some sliderule engineers were awesone rocket scientists. (Unlike the NASA of today...)
John Levy: There is no B-3 bomber.
Conrad 'Connie' Brean: [Knowingly] I just said that! There is no B-3 bomber, and I don't know why these rumors get started!
I have been a Californian since I was 8, a U.S. citizen since a week after I was eligible to become one.
That California was not on that list was not an accident, and nothing makes me happier.
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy" than the criminal incompetence of the California legislatures of the last 30 years.
The creditworthiness of California is about to take well-deserved nosedive, and the budget deficits launched into orbit in the very near future.
Just in...
5/03/2018, 9:53 p.m. PST : FEMA will NOT cover the expense of the Oroville incompetence disaster
And the cherry on top will be the repeal of the monumental Gas tax and DMV fees, and some arrests for failing to audit and report on the expenditure of gas tax revenues, the bond issues sold as exclusively for highway improvements, which were diverted by the criminal legislatures, also of the last 30 years.
The bankruptcy of the high speed train to nowhere will be the next felony legislative crime to hit the news.
I expect a midnight caravan, any day now, of State Legislators headed south, most, if not all, with hispanic names...
I wonder if the U-2 will still be flying by 2050 as well; more than two years after the announcement of the TR-X replacement for the U2, and it’s still publicly a piece of concept artwork.
Then, when the B-21 is officially retired, a B-52, designed in the 50s and new off the production line in 1963, will perform a flyby in salute.
B-52’s were and B1-B’s are housed at Dyess. I saw the announcement in the Abilene paper earlier.
All of the B-52’s are much older airframes than the pilots. They are still payload carriers. I read about them being used to bomb an air base near Tabqa Syria, saw after action photos of it. Flattened. Certainly not stealth. smile.
The B1-B’s will be around a while. Powerful fast groundhugging heavy load delivering workhorses. I’ve seen and felt the vibration of them on night takeoff with after burners kicked in, simply awesome.
In 2014 when ISIS was about to overrun Kobani (Syria) I saw some great night photos of the bombing we place on the Jihadi headchoppers assaulting them. Learned later it was the B1-Bs delivering the goods.
We have all seen how the ground forces still love the A-10s that the brass want’s to discard. There is nothing that does tanks any better than the heavy iron of the A-10s for some targets.
Then there are the F-16s. Still one great fighter.
The State has gone South. Not literally, but certainly figuratively.
“a flyby in salute”
Bump
The Physics of flight have apparently not been subject to the whims of Congress yet.
Correct.
Whether they were planned with a slide rule or a computer, physics is the same.
Accuracy with digital readout can be misleading. Just because they show 3 digits to the right of the decimal, does not mean they are more precise.
Much as I hate to admit it, Art is still involved in Design....
Don’t hate it, embrace it. Art and Design are inextricably linked.
Sure glad that they didn’t name it the Obomber after the last President.
I used to watch B52s fly off to Vietnam when I was a kid. They flew over my house every day. What a spectacular aircraft.
Will they build more than 20 planes?
I am zure there is a bill in the California legislature to modify them.
Pilots like to say “If it looks good, it flies good” and I believe there is truth in that.
I have seen a lot of planes that look beautiful and fly well, but it is far rarer to see ugly planes that fly well, though they do exist!
(The A-10 is not one of those “ugly” planes that fly well...I have never understood how people find that plane unattractive!)
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