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On Friday, strikes by U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers destroyed 85 targeting points in Iranian proxy militia target areas, four in Syria and three in Iraq. And they launched it out of Texas.
The White House has promised a multi-layered operation against Iranian Revolutionary Guards-backed militias. So far, President Biden and his team have relied on air power to contain and punish Iranian proxies.
But let me assure you that Friday’s attack was just a taste of what the B-1 has to offer.
A U.S. Air Force B-1B bomber from Dyess Air Force Base flies over the 134th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, January 2, 2023. (Jerrod Harris/Getty Images)
For the B-1 crew that flew Friday, the region of Syria and Iraq is like their backyard. B-1s have served in combat missions for Central Command for years, attacking fixed targets, eliminating chemical weapons emplacements, and flying hours over friendly ground forces to defeat ISIS insurgents. They were targeted one precision bomb at a time.
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The B-1 has the highest payload of any American bomber. Heck, each B-1 he can carry 42,000 pounds of precision, individually targetable ammunition. That means Revolutionary Guard hideouts and weapons routes in Syria and Iraq could be transformed into lunar landscapes. Think about that, Esmail Ghani.
The sophisticated supersonic B-1 bomber was famously canceled in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. President Ronald Reagan revived this bomber in his 1981 year, and in California he built 100 of his B-1 bombers.
According to George Thorogood and the Destroyers’ 1982 rock lyrics, this plane is bad, bad to the bone. literally. The B-1B bomber’s official name is Lancer, but he is affectionately known as B-ONE or “Bone”.
Without a doubt, this is the most sophisticated bomber of all time. B-2 Spiritya new B-21 Raider, but the B-1 simply screams speed. Four General Electric F101 dual-rotor, afterburning turbofan engines allow the B-1 to reach a top speed of Mach 1.2, or approximately 900 miles per hour.
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Fun fact: The B-1’s variable sweep wings move during flight. During takeoff and landing, the wing is in front of the fuselage at an angle of 15 degrees. With the wings swept back to a 67-degree angle, lift efficiency allows the B-1 to fly faster than the speed of sound at low or high altitudes.
Dating back to the Cold War era, the B-1 was designed to penetrate Soviet Russian airspace at extremely low altitudes, clinging tightly to terrain and obscuring its approach to targets during wartime. The crew trained for missions at night, in bad weather, and in the mountains. Chris Miller, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and former B-1 pilot, said that when you’re below 400 feet and traveling at 9 miles per hour, “when you look out the side window, there’s a lot of blur.”
Today, the B-1 flies at high altitudes for combat, allowing it to deploy advanced precision weapons. And they fly really long missions. It’s like going from Texas to Syria and back.
All B-1 missions from Texas were part of the combat routine. Still, sitting in the ejection seat for 30 hours is no fun. Having the B-1’s crew of four (two pilots, two combat systems officers who use electronic warfare magic) helps manage fatigue.
“Take a power nap, watch your nutrition, and don’t consume too much caffeine. You’ll still feel pretty good for 24 to 20 hours,” says Miller.
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Personally, I can’t imagine a global combat mission with limited coffee, but there is room to stretch between the front and rear cockpit areas. What is the best position for a nap in B-1? The top has a foam and vinyl engine inlet cover that is always carried onboard on long missions. Yes, there is a camp toilet in B-1.
In my opinion, last Friday’s B-1 airstrike served as a sharp reminder that America can launch sustained air operations at any time.
Moving the B-1 to a base in the theater would allow it to attack Iranian ships at sea and attack air defense systems and other sensitive targets from long range with weapons such as the Joint Air-to-Surface Missile (JASSM) and the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW). Blow up a place. ) and, above all, to maintain pressure on rebels and terrorist militias from Syria to the Houthis in Yemen.
B-1 has done it before. In August 2014, a B-1 was taking off from Qatar for a mission over Afghanistan as Islamic State forces came within 30 miles of Baghdad, and the crew was on a mission to support Iraqi forces in danger of being overrun. was reappointed.
The B-1s began a 10-hour flight over the combat zone, firing precision weapons one by one at ISIS insurgents and striking fixed points.
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In early 2015, B-1s delivered close air support to Kurdish forces over several weeks, dropping more than 1,700 weapons and breaking the siege of the Syrian-Turkish border town of Kobani. The battle halted the advance of the so-called ISIS caliphate.
US and coalition aircraft dropped more than 114,000 bombs between 2014 and 2018 alone.
Spare parts and cost issues reduced the B-1 force to a precious 45 aircraft. But there’s a reason the Air Force retired 17 B-1s to keep the rest flying: China. In the Pacific, the B-1’s supersonic speed could play a big role.
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The Air Force is currently testing new external wing pylons developed by Boeing that could allow the B-1 to carry large hypersonic missiles on its wings. The B-1 is already testing the GBU-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator and other precision weapons on its pylons. All of this will be very useful if China becomes aggressive.
Yes, that B-1 is bad to the bone. This is not a plane that Iran or China would want to interfere with.
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