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The BONE headed to the boneyard?

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
All 3 airplanes have much greater endurance than fighters - gas delivered by a tanker is much more expensive than gas pumped on the ground; in addition, the greater weapon capacity allows a greater time on station (24 vs 3-4 JDAM max for a fighter/84 unguided MK82 vs ~28 MK82 for A-6E vs ~6-9 for a fighter). The extra sensors and crew allow better mission management for some tasks as well.

What you are not taking into account are the unique costs associated with maintaining a unique but very small fleet of aircraft with a mission that can be easily done by other aircraft. The overall costs of the B-1 are much higher than for the equivalent punch from the number of fighters, and they are much more flexible than the bombers. Stuff has got to get cut and we can't keep everything and as the redundant bomber with no unique capabilities it is low hanging fruit that deserves to get picked.
 

gparks1989

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
(data from open sources)
B-2: we only have 20 of them, can carry 80x500LB or 16x2000LB weapons; in addition, much of the B-2 is (by necessity) very highly classified which makes it difficult to integrate into a package. In addition, the stealth capability, critical technology, and high cost makes them a national asset so the powers that be are necessarily reluctant to place it at risk/wear it out in day-to-day ops.

B-1: dropped ~30-40% of the JDAMs in the sandbox despite flying around 1% of the sorties, radar and sniper pod for targeting, can carry 84x500LB or 24X2000LB class weapons, loiter time measured in hours, excellent at low level as well as high speed (quicker you can get from the CAS orbit to troops in contact the better). Auto terrain following radar lets the crew fly low level in 100% IMC.

B-52: the nuclear procedures incidents over the past several years were partially due to the continual conventional deployment taskings eroding the ability of the force to focus on nuclear ops. Boomer crews are dedicated to a nuclear mission, for example, not taking several weeks off every few months to drive riverine patrol boats. In addition, as the referenced baseops thread states, the BUFF is getting long in the tooth as well. Fewer sensors for the dynamic targeting necessary for CAS. Slightly less payload (70K vs 75K for the Bone).

All 3 airplanes have much greater endurance than fighters - gas delivered by a tanker is much more expensive than gas pumped on the ground; in addition, the greater weapon capacity allows a greater time on station (24 vs 3-4 JDAM max for a fighter/84 unguided MK82 vs ~28 MK82 for A-6E vs ~6-9 for a fighter). The extra sensors and crew allow better mission management for some tasks as well.



Touche. Is there anything in the works to replace any of the heavy bombers?
 

magnetfreezer

Well-Known Member
Touche. Is there anything in the works to replace any of the heavy bombers?

Next Generation Bomber projected to enter service around 2018 (could be at least part UAV as well). However, there has been a tanker replacement "in the works" for years (KC-135 airframes very worn out as well) and we all saw how well that worked. F-22 contract was awarded back in 1991 when Lockheed won the competition.
 
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