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The US Air Force is bringing a 40-year-old supersonic bomber out of mothballs. This is why
Yahoo News ^ | April 11, 2024 | David Axe

Posted on 04/13/2024 7:47:38 AM PDT by george76

The US Air Force has 140 of its biggest warplanes – its heavy bombers – in active service: 76 Boeing B-52Hs, 44 Boeing B-1Bs and 20 B-2 stealth bombers built by Northrop Grumman.

..

Any other air force might content itself with 140 bombers and redistribute the lost bomber’s operating budget. But the US Air Force is counting on the B-1 to play a lead role in a possible air war over the Taiwan Strait. It’s such a high priority that the service is spending millions of dollars recovering, from long-term storage, a surplus B-1 nicknamed “Lancelot” that’s been sitting in desert storage, aka “the Boneyard”, for three years.

This is an operation the Air Force has done just three times in recent decades. Besides the B-1, the service returned to flying status two stored B-52s – one in 2020 and another in 2015 – in order to replace bombers that it lost to accidents.

Recovering from storage a machine as complex as a bomber is hard, expensive and time-consuming work. It can take hundreds of people working thousands of hours over a span of years and at a cost of millions of dollars.

That the Air Force is willing to make the investment speaks to the importance of the big, lumbering warplanes as the service positions itself to, among other contingencies, defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion fleet.

The four-engine, supersonic, swing-wing B-1 – crewed by four people and capable of carrying 37 tons of bombs and missiles over intercontinental distances – is the Air Force’s main anti-ship platform. It can carry 24 of the service’s best cruise missiles, including its Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles, or LRASMs.

(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: China; Foreign Affairs; Government; Japan; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War
KEYWORDS: aviation; b1; bone; buff; china; lrasm
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To: Sgt_Schultze

I’m sorry, but isn’t official US Gov’t policy still that Taiwan is a part of China?


41 posted on 04/13/2024 9:03:11 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: george76
"What is good for the Cheney Family and Bush Family Wealth Trusts is good for America!"

https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison

42 posted on 04/13/2024 9:03:17 AM PDT by Sooth2222 (“Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite.” /"Every nation has the government it deserves.” )
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To: BlueLancer

Wow!


43 posted on 04/13/2024 9:06:20 AM PDT by null and void (There’s only one thing that’s for sure. Everyone on all sides a conflict will be happy to lie to you)
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To: george76
They built 100, Air Force only needs 60 in service. No sense in performing Phase Maintenance on aircraft you don't need right now.

The B-1B has BY FAR the largest payload of any of our strategic bombers.

44 posted on 04/13/2024 9:12:44 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again" - J. Hendrix)
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To: CTyank
“Survival kit contents check. In them you’ll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days’ concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.” ~ Maj. ‘King’ Kong

Major Kong was filmed saying "Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff.”, but something happened in Dallas in November 1963 between the end of filming and the release of the film, so "Vegas" was dubbed in over "Dallas". (The audio isn't in sync with Major Kong's lip movements.)

(Dr. Strangelove was supposed to be satire 60 years ago, not a documentary of the Biden administration.)

45 posted on 04/13/2024 9:16:42 AM PDT by Sooth2222 (“Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite.” /"Every nation has the government it deserves.” )
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To: dfwgator

Here we go...


46 posted on 04/13/2024 9:24:51 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: Sgt_Schultze

By September or October I imagine.....

/shiny side out


47 posted on 04/13/2024 9:26:03 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

https://hushkit.net/2022/05/08/life-and-death-in-the-delta-queen-my-time-on-the-b-58-hustler-supersonic-bomber/

Why was it retired, and was it too early?

By 1967, all major improvement modifications had been completed on the B-58 and like its big brother the B-52, it could have remained in the inventory for many more years. Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and even the Office of the Secretary of Defense, despite initial misgivings about the Hustler, came to realize its value as a strategic bomber and by January 1969, it had been given a new lease on life.

It was certainly a weapon system feared by the Soviets. But because of an indisputable blunder by Strategic Air Command, during a time when they were under pressure to cut costs, they decided to trade off all of the B-58s in hopes of retaining some older model B-52s. They got their trade off from the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Then, within months, they were also forced to phase out those older model B-52s they had hoped to keep.


48 posted on 04/13/2024 9:26:03 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: george76
Suppose Taiwan enters talks with Communist China about terms of reunification? I think this is more likely the more warlike the US gets.

What will the US military do then?

49 posted on 04/13/2024 9:31:30 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: Delta 21

50 posted on 04/13/2024 9:38:11 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: george76

From Wiki:

“ The B-1B no longer carries nuclear weapons;[40] its nuclear capability was disabled by 1995 with the removal of nuclear arming and fuzing hardware.[122] Under provisions of the New START treaty with Russia, further conversions were performed. These included modification of aircraft hardpoints to prevent nuclear weapon pylons from being attached, removal of weapons bay wiring bundles for arming nuclear weapons, and destruction of nuclear weapon pylons. The conversion process was completed in 2011, and Russian officials inspect the aircraft every year to verify compliance.”


51 posted on 04/13/2024 9:41:05 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals)
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To: GMThrust
Lancelot LOL! Well researched article. /S

As I read it, Lancelot is the name of this particular B-1, not the name of the Lancer fleet.

52 posted on 04/13/2024 10:03:08 AM PDT by Mr.Unique (My boss wants me to sign up for a 401K. No way I'm running that far! )
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To: shooter223

I got a ‘68 in ‘85 for $65, same price as they were going to get for it at the junk yard.

Everything “worked”, roomy. About 8mpg.


53 posted on 04/13/2024 10:03:59 AM PDT by gnarledmaw (Hivemind liberals worship leaders, sovereign conservatives select servants.)
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To: Sirius Lee

Yup...love that one...


54 posted on 04/13/2024 10:08:29 AM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)
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To: Sirius Lee

Is that a 106 Delta Dart?


55 posted on 04/13/2024 10:52:31 AM PDT by 4yearlurker (Arise and shine,and give God the glory!-A trail cook's morning call.)
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To: Salman

Assassinations of high level reps from both sides blamed on the other. Blow some stuff up and blame it on the other. You know, the CIA doing CIA stuff.


56 posted on 04/13/2024 10:58:12 AM PDT by FrankRizzo890
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To: Chad C. Mulligan
The B-58 should never have been decommissioned.

The Hustler was on the tail end of the paradigm to go higher and faster. Now it's stealthier and more connected. It's usefulness would have been limited, and its maintenance expensive.

57 posted on 04/13/2024 11:00:43 AM PDT by Rinnwald
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To: george76
No surprise they did it ..

A BONE was lost last January, in a landing accident, at Ellsworth. Resurrection from the boneyard is part of the AMARC plan.

58 posted on 04/13/2024 11:18:12 AM PDT by pfflier
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To: george76

btt


59 posted on 04/13/2024 11:28:58 AM PDT by GailA (Land Grabs, Poisoned Food, KILL the COWS, Bidenomics=BIDEN DEPRESSION. STAGNATION)
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To: george76

he said LRASM


60 posted on 04/13/2024 11:41:09 AM PDT by one guy in new jersey
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