Although this is truly my namesake ...
Lancer of the Vistula Legion ...
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.
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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 ...
https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104500/b-1b-lancer/
The B-1B is an improved variant initiated by the Reagan administration in 1981. Major changes included and additional structure to increase payload by 74,000 pounds, an improved radar and reduction of the radar cross section by an order of magnitude. The inlet was extensively modified as part of this RCS reduction, necessitating a reduction in maximum speed to Mach 1.2.
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Inventory: Active force, 62 (test, 2); ANG, 0; Reserve, 0
(Current as of September 2016)
The first production B-1 flew in October 1984, and the first B-1B was delivered to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, in June 1985. Initial operational capability was achieved on Oct. 1, 1986. The final B-1B was delivered May 2, 1988.
About the author:
David Axe is an American military correspondent, blogger, and graphic novelist. Axe founded the website War Is Boring in 2007 as a webcomic, and later developed it into a news blog.
And of course, it’s a long, laborious process that costs MILLIONS of dollars. Never mentioning how cheap and easy it is compared to building new ones.
I want to see this scribbler describe the laborious process of installing new tires and shock and performing a tune up and detailing of a car. And then contrast it to a new car.
Also funny how he acts like it’s a prelude to war. They add a single B-1 and to him it’s 1941. It’s astonishing how horny DC and the MSM is for us to be in a war.
There isn’t going to be a war in Taiwan, as much as DC wants it. As we collapse economically and morally, China will use elite capture on Taiwan until they are invited in. They will deplane to a red carpet at Taipei Airport 10 or 15 years from now.
Yeah, i caught that too. Author and editor not only wilfully ignorant but simply stupid.
The Big Story on Action News, will the U.S. Military protect the US Citizen?
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/b-1-lancer-bomber-dyess-modernized/
Oct. 6, 2023 | By David Roza
The 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, launched a B-1B Lancer on Sept. 8 that received a slew of technology upgrades through a new program designed to modernize the aging bomber fleet much faster than usual.
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BEAST shaves two years off the upgrade process, Pope said. Specifically, the upgrades take an average of 22 days to complete, he said. Over the next two years, 22 more B-1s at Dyess will be modernized one at a time.
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The Air Force is creating digital twins of the bomber, which should help predict structural issues and serve as a baseline for upgrades.
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Meanwhile, the BEAST modifications should give the B-1 “life and lethality out to 2040 and beyond,” Pope said.
I expect we will be in some kind of war before November. Something terrible will happen to precipitate bit. I haven’t much confidence in its competent execution, nor its need. This country is in dangerous hands.
Ping, just because...
If they are going to get those out of mothballs in time, they’d better Hustle!
With what fuel? Slo Joe emptied the SPR.
The B-58 should never have been decommissioned.
An “additional” 76,000 pounds? Those numbers are staggering when compared to a B17 or B29.
Those birds can really ruin your day.
At $35/oz.
Feel free to calculate the inflation since the movie was made...
Dr. Strangelove was released in 1964. $100 was worth something back then. You could buy a used car that was good enough to get you to work every day, for example.
Maybe if the fidiots didn’t sign asinine one sided arms deals with the Soviets chopping B1s in half we would have better options.
Although this is truly my namesake ...
Lancer of the Vistula Legion ...
If They are bringing back the Bone, things are about to get real .
Biden will likely bomb Israel with them.You have to apply the Biden woke meme to every thing this a$$ hat administration does.
The bone has a sea level speed of 900 miles per hour.Thats Mach 1.2
The Chinese will not like seeing them flying aroound in the Western Phillipines areas.They will likely stage in Guam, which China wants to destroy.
I'm guessing before November, somewhere between when mail-in ballots arrived from anonymously stuffed ballot boxes and in-person voting would have started.
Due to the war, we've had (just had) to cancel the in-person voting, but don't worry, plenty of Americans mailed their votes in!
I still love me some Aardvark.
Wake me when they bring “B-1” Bob Dornan out of mothballs and back into duty in the House.
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