Key Points and Summary – The U.S. Air Force is significantly upgrading its “legacy” B-1B Lancer bomber fleet to bridge a “bomber deficit” until the new B-21 Raider arrives in sufficient numbers.
-Despite its age, the B-1B is a workhorse that is receiving a massive overhaul, including new engines, targeting pods, and communications.
B-1B Lancer Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-Most critically, its weapons bay is being reconfigured, increasing its internal payload from 24 to 40 weapons and giving it the new ability to carry hypersonic missiles.
-This transforms the B-1B into a formidable standoff “missile truck,” ensuring its relevance for decades.
Super B-1B Lancer Is Coming to the U.S. Air Force
In recent years, the Air Force has also reconfigured the B-1B Lancer’s weapons bay to carry more weapons, increasing its magazine capacity from 24 to 40.
The adjustments to the bomb bay will also enable the B-1B to carry hypersonic weapons, significantly increasing the aircraft’s lethality.
The bomb bay itself has been massively reconfigured in anticipation of weapons that do not yet exist.
Accommodating larger hypersonic weapons into a B-1B bomb bay brings several strategic implications; not only does it massively increase the target envelope and range, but also allows for more extended mission “dwell” time over targets to sustain attacks.
Integrating hypersonic weapons serves two key Air Force aims: accelerating their deployment to war and sustaining and upgrading the B-1B to the fullest extent.
Integrating large hypersonics also aligns with the Air Force’s broader intent to rapidly integrate innovations from the science and technology realm into operational use.
B-1B Lancer Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
B1-B Lancer Many Years of Service
The famous B-1B Lancer bomber may be many decades old.
Yet, the classic platform has surged into the future with a wide range of evolving attributes, including new avionics, communications technologies, engines, and even hypersonic bombing capability.
While a legacy platform heading toward eventual retirement and “end-of-service,” the B-1B has been preserved and sustained due to what the Air Force refers to as a “bomber deficit.”
For many years, the service has maintained that its bomber fleet is insufficient to meet combatant commanders’ demands worldwide, a circumstance that has led to extensive service-life extensions for many of its platforms.
The strategy has been clear, as the Air Force wants to sustain its op-tempo of critical Bomber Task Force deployments and deterrence missions with its existing fleet until larger numbers of B-21s arrive.
Crew Chief Senior Airman Mike Parks talks through his headset with the crew of a U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber as they go through the pre-flight checklist at an air base in the Persian Gulf region on Dec. 10, 1998. The Lancer, deployed from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, is a multi-role, long range, heavy bomber.
(DoD photo by Senior Airman Sean M. White, U.S. Air Force. (Released))
The overall approach is grounded in considerable measure upon the recognition that airframes from legacy aircraft often remain viable for decades after what may have been anticipated.
With some maintenance and structural reinforcement, older airframes can endure for decades to come, remaining relevant and operational.
B1-B Work Horse
The Air Force’s B-1 B bomber may capture fewer headlines than a sleek-looking, stealthy B-2 or F-35, yet the decades-old bomber has performed a massive volume of missions in recent years.
The B-1, which had its combat debut in Operation Desert Fox in 1998, went on to drop thousands of JDAMS during the multi-year wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The B-1 can hit speeds of MACH 1.25 at 40,000 feet and flies a ceiling of 60,000 feet. It fires a wide range of bombs, including several JDAMs: GBU-31, GBU-38, and GBU-54. It also fires the small-diameter bomb, the GBU-39.
Therefore, despite its age, the B-1B has remained in service as part of a key strategy to retain a viable and effective bomber fleet until larger numbers of the new B-21 Raider arrive.
B1-B Lancer Overhaul
This is why the Air Force has been pursuing a massive technical overhaul of the B-1B, giving the aircraft an expanded weapons ability along with new avionics, communications technology, and engines.
The engines have been refurbished in recent years to retain their original performance specs, and the B-1 has also been getting new targeting and intelligence systems.
A new Integrated Battle Station includes new aircrew displays and communication links for in-flight data sharing.
Another upgrade, called The Fully Integrated Targeting Pod, connects the targeting pod control and video feed to the B-1 cockpit displays.
The B-1B Lancer will also be able to increase its carriage capacity of 500-pound class weapons by 60 percent due to Bomb Rack Unit upgrades.
About the Author: Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
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