B1B Bomber

12 October 2002, 12:41 AM

Folks,

Did anyone lse hear that the Air Force was retiring 24 B1B 's to the Bone Yard (AZ desert). I have seen nothing about the retiring of these planes on national/cable news.

The Tucson station report that 24 B1B's arrived here(the bone yard is in Tucson). And that 11 B1B's will be used for parts for the planes still active.

That some may recalled if the war on Iraq requires.

This for multi million dollar aircraft, when the B-52 is still flying.

TG

Richard_Schrader · 12 October 2002, 07:05 AM

Topgun;
I hate to see the B-1 go, but the Air Force cn do the job with the old B-52 and the B-2.
There has always been an old saying in the Air Force that when the last B-1 is flown to the scrap yard, a B-52 will pick the crew up.

Richard

Barrett · 12 October 2002, 01:04 PM

Taxpayers: you should demand a refund on the whole B-2 program. I don't care WHAT the brochure says, it isn't stealthy enough to cross the beach without Prowler jammer support. Any airplane that costs an admitted $2.2 billion (a small ship) is too damn gold-plated to risk in genuine combat other than Armageddon. The Spirit sucked up gobs of money that other USAF communities badly needed.

Richard_Schrader · 12 October 2002, 01:15 PM

Barrett;
Okay, I'll forgive the Air Force and President Reagan if they give me one of the B-1s. Hopefully, one with full fuel tanks or I'll be working the rest of my life just for gas!

Richard

Barrett · 12 October 2002, 05:43 PM

The B-1 is a textbook example of how not to manage a program. The design had much merit but Jimmah Cahtah (he just got the Nobel Prize for carpentry or something) cancelled the A model owing to cost/benefit problems and his own inherent dislike of things military. (After all, his college was "Canoe U"; go figger)
The B model had even more serious problems, almost as a guarantee: artificially early delivery date, inadequate budget, and FOUR contractors overseen by the gov't. Oy vay! Still, it's been a capable machine but probably not worth the price.

13 October 2002, 04:01 AM

The B52 is designed for hauling weight, and it hauls uteloads of weight. That doesnt go out of fashion, the B1 is designed for technological subversion, it just happens to drop bombs as an end result of that process. Designing to subvert existing technology is a quick way IMO to become obsolescent.

>Any airplane that costs an admitted $2.2
>billion (a small ship)

An ANZAC Frigate costs about 450 million AUD, which is about 225 million USD. Australia could have an indigineously designed and built carrier fleet for the price of a squadron of B bombers.

cam

mike_baram · 13 October 2002, 08:14 AM

Does that include the savings achieved by using boomerangs for defensive weaponry and digiridoos for communications?

Shooter · 13 October 2002, 08:13 PM

If I remember it correctly, the Air Force wanted the B-1 program because the BUFF's were old, and slow, and not very flashy (a new toy for under the XMas tree?). Also, the Carter DoD folks were toying with unmanned flight systems (the early cruise missiles) as an alternative to manned bombers and that drove the USAF lobby up the wall. Unmanned a/c are "the great Satan" for the Air Farce, so much so that they spent tons of effort fighting the concept when SAC was the big budget service. That was then, this is now, and suddenly the Air Farce has found a way to love cruise missiles just so long as they are carried by manned bombers half way to their targets.

The zoomies told the American public that we'd all be conquered by the Russians if the B-1 program was scrapped. The Reagan SecDef (Cap who?) gave them back their new toy, and the rest is history. The supersonic B-1 (that never was) is reborn as a subsonic strategic bomber that is critical to the USAF mission.

Along comes the B-2, and suddenly the old B-1 program is too flawed to continue. Translation: the B-2 program needs a transfusion of greenies, maybe?

This smells like the Sergeant York, the Seawolf, or the Osprey, cubed.

Shooter sends

13 October 2002, 10:57 PM

Too bad Clinton used up all the non nuclear tipped cruise missles on aspirin factories.

May be the B 52 should go back into production.

But SALT II saw the cutting of a number of B 52's here at the Great Desert.

Every taxpayer should see all the F14's and F4's sitting here in the desert near Tucson. As in row upon row.

TG