February 13, 2020
How America's B-1B Bomber Become More Missile Carrier Than Aircraft
The B-1B may have lost its cluster-munitions capability, but it still has plenty of other weapons at its disposal.
by Kyle Mizokami
Key point: The B-1B’s large fuselage could conceal a huge amount of weaponry, up to seventy-five thousand pounds of ordnance tucked within three weapons bays.
Like many warplanes since the end of the Cold War, the B-1B bomber’s role in American airpower has changed to embrace new missions. Unlike other planes, the B-1’s mission changed even before the first aircraft took off. What started as a high-altitude, high-speed nuclear-penetration bomber has evolved into today’s all-purpose nonnuclear attack aircraft, a jack-of-all-trades with a huge carrying capacity for bombs and air-to-ground missiles.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-americas-b-1b-bomber-become-more-missile-carrier-aircraft-122806
