The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress has been the principal manned bomber of USAF’s Strategic Sir Command since the mid-1950s. Less than a third of the 744 aircraft originally built remain operational, and these have an average age of more than 20 years. In 1985 the oldest version in the inventory was the B-52D, which was heavily modified for the conventional bombing role – a legacy of Vietnam – and could carry up to 84 500lb (225kg) bombs in the bombs on underwing pylons. Only a handful of the 170 produced remained in service by late 1984, and all will probably have been retired by the time this book is published.

            The SAC fleet is now made up of B-52G and 52H models. The G introduced a re-designed wing with integral fuel tanks, a revised tail fin of lower profile, a remotely controlled tail-turret armed with 50-calibre machine guns, and the ability to carry air to surface missiles such as the AGM-69 SRAMS. A total of 193 were built, and 168 were still operational in late 1984. Up to 20 ALCM cruise missiles will also be carried on external pylons and internal rotary launchers.

Above: AGM-69 SRAM on a rotary launcher in the bomb-bay of a Boeing B-52 strategic bomber. Maintaining this aging fleet is becoming increasingly costly.

            Following the cancellation of the B-70 bomber, a further version of the B-52 was introduced in 1961. The B-52H was the first to use turbofan engines – Pratt & Whitney TF33s – and had an improved structure better suited to low-level flight. 20mm rotary cannon replaced the 50-calibre tail guns used in earlier models. The last of 102 B-52Hs was produced in June 1962, and 96 remain in service.

            Maintaining this aging flee of the veterans requires a considerable engineering effort. Modification programmes currently under way or planned are intended both to pro-long the aircraft service life and to expand the mission profile. This work is expensive: in fiscal year 1984 the USAF spent $460.7 million on B-52 modifications, and more than $76 million on developing future improvements.

            Cruise missiles will be fitted to 99 B-52G and 96 B-52H, externally in the case of the –52G, externally and internally in the case of the H model, which will be fitted with the Common Strategic Rotary Launcher for the internal carriage of ALCM, SRAM, and other weapons. By the end of FY84, 90 B-52G aircraft were equipped to carry ALCM, and work on converting the B-52H force began in 1985. By the end of the decade, the “new” Rockwell B-1B will be the primary penetrating bomber, and most B-52s will either be serving as cruise missile carriers or assigned to general-purpose missions.

The B-52’s ECM systems are regularly upgraded, and the latest projects include Pave Mint (updating the ALQ-117 ECM set of the B-52G to counter new surface and airborne fire-control and missile radars), and the installation of the ALQ-172 in the B-52H to cope with current and projected airborne interceptors.

            Other B-52 modernisation programmes will replace outdated radar equipment with modern solid-state components, install a new environment control system, and improve communications by fitting VLF/LF receiver terminals, and upgrading the SATCOM terminals.  The existing electro-optical viewing system on the B-52G is to be updated, and a digital unit will replace the existing FLIR signal processor. The 69 aircraft not scheduled to receive ALCM with be fitted with a new integrated stores management system.

            The General Dynamics FB-111A was built in only modest numbers, and 55 still fly with two SAC wings. As the B-1B enters service, surviving FB-111As will be re-assigned to Tactical Air Command.

            Contracts for development of the B-1 were signed in 1970, and Rockwell International flew the first prototype on December 23, 1974. Approval for a 200+ production run was granted two years later, but then President Carter’s decision in June 1977 to cancel the programme came as a bombshell. Four years later, the US House and Senate Committees for Defense Appropriations gave the aircraft a second chance when they ordered the USAF to develop a new bomber. The alternative of the B-1,  a stretched derivates of the FB-111, and an all-new design based on “stealth” technology.

            The chosen solution was to order 100 B-1B bombers and to begin development of a new Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) for service in the 1990s. Compared with the B-1A, the B-1B has a lower top speed, a lower radar cross-section, and will carry a heavier payload including cruise missiles.

Above: Like the Soviet “Bear” bomber, the B-52 keeps on finding new roles. This aircraft is laying sea mines, a potentially very valuable mission.

Below: The SAC strategic in inventory still shows 55 FB-111As, armed with four SRAMs. As B-1B enters service FB-111s will transfer to Tactical Air Command.

            In January 1982, Rockwell received an $886 million contract for the new B-1B. On March 23 of the following year, the second B-1A prototype was restored to flying status, allowing test to be made on the B-1B fixed-geometry engine inlets, flight control system, and composite bomb bay doors.

            The first B-1B production aircraft was rolled on 4 September 1984 (a week after the crash of the No.2 prototype at Edwards AFB), and flew on 18 October. Delivery of the first operational B-1B was scheduled for the summer of 1985, with the first squadron being declared operational in August 1986. By early 1987, Rockwell hopes to hit a production rate of four aircraft per month, completing deliveries of the planned fleet of 100 in June of the following year. At a programme unit cost of $283 million, the B-1B is expensive, and there are no plans for a follow on order.

            Although planned as an interim bomber, the B-1B should have a long operating life. It should be able to penetrate deep into heavily defended airspace well into the 1990s, and to survive in the face of less sophisticated defences beyond the year 2000. Planned alternate roles include stand-off missile carrier, and naval support missions such as maritime surveillance and minelaying.

            The development contract for the highly classified Advanced Technology Bomber was awarded to Northrop, a company whose prior bomber experience was confined to the unsuccessful YB-49 Flying Wing of the late 1940s, but an organization which has significant experience in carbon-fibre technology and ECM.

            Production of this new “stealth” bomber is expected to follow close behind that of the B-1B. ATB is expected to be smaller than the B-1, and will probably have a metal load-bearing structure. First flight is planned for 1987, and the first batch from a planned run of up 150 could enter service in the early 1990s, replacing the B-1B in the penetration role, and allowing the latter to replace the B-52 as a stand-off missile carrier. According to the US DoD, the ATB should maintain SAC’s ability to penetrate Soviet air defences into the 21^st century.

Above : USAF’s B-1 was designed to meet an urgent need to replace the ageing B-52 and to provide a strategic low-level penetration capability.

The Soviet bomber force

The Soviet Union does not have – and never has had – a viable bomber force capable of flying deep-penetration strategic missions into US airspace. The turbo prop-powered Tu-95 “Bear” was always vulnerable to interception. Early-model “Bison” bombers used Mikulin AM-3 turbojets and were short of range; by the time that the definitive model powered by D-15 two-spool engines was available, the aircraft was incapable of avoiding USAFs F-102 interceptors, let lone the later F-106. The only other long-range bomber project – the massive Mach 1.8 Mya M-52 “Bounder” – was as bold a design for the late 1950s as the “Blackjack” is by today’s standards. Several prototypes were built, but the type never entered production – presumably due to performance deficiencies.

            Surviving “Bears” and “Bison” still serve in modest numbers, along with the shorter-ranges Tu-16 “Badger” and Tu-22 “Blinder” , but many are now used as tankers, ECM aircraft or as air to surface missiles carriers. The Tu-95 “Bear” has recently been returned to production as a cruise missile carrier.

            At least 130 Tupolev Tu-26 “Backfires” – approximately half of the production run to date – are in service with Long Range Aviation, 40 in the eastern part of the Soviet Union, and the remainder in the northern and southern flank of the western USSR. Although once considered by the USAF as a threat to the continental USA, Backfire lacks the range for such missions, except as a “one-way trip” with a final landing attempt in Latin America. Production of this aircraft continues at around 30 per year.

Above: As-6 cruise missile beneath a Tupolev Tu-22M “Backfire” bomber. These nuclear-armed missiles would be used to attack targets in Europe and Asia.

Operational capability of the Soviet Air Force’s Long Range Aviation units should receive a boost from 1987 onwards when the Tupolev “Blackjack” variable geometry bomber enters service. Larger and faster than the B-1, it will be the first effective intercontinental bomber fielded by Long Range Aviation, arriving in service at a time when the USA is protected by less than a dozen USAF fighter squadrons plus about half that number of Air National Guard units. US-based Nike Hercules SAMs have all been withdrawn from service. By the early 1990s, it will have replaced the “Bear” and “Bison” fleet.

            The massive airframe of “Blackjack” has sufficient internal volume for a large fuel load. Powered by four large turbofans – probably a new-technology turbofan in the thrust class of the Tu-144 supersonic airliner’s Kusnetsov NK-144s – the aircraft has the range to fly combat missions against the continental USA, and enough performance to give it a fair chance of surviving the mission, returning to base, and being able to repeat the process. It will also give the Soviet Government the heavy high-explosive firepowere heeded to intervene in third World conflicts in support of Soviet allies, and a useful long-range maritime-strike capability.

Above: This satellite picture shows the Tupolev “Blackjack” strategic bomber prototype beside two Tu-144s, apparently being used for experimental purposes.

            According to the US DoD, “Blackjack’s” tactical radius operating from bases in the northern USSR but not refueling in flight would allow coverage of Canada, the north-western USA, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt. Most of Saudi Arabia, northern India, Laos, and the northern part of Vietnam. Given air refueling, the bomber could range as far as Mexico, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka.

Above: Tupolev Tu-22M “Backfire” flying high above the Baltic, seen by a Draken of the Royal Swedish Air Force. The Backfire” caused very considerable controversy when in entered service, as it was seen to pose a major threat to the USA, but it is now appreciated that it lacks the range for anything more than a one-way flight, recovering to a Latin American country. “Backfire” continues in production at 30 per year, and serves with the Soviet Navy and Air Force.

            How effective it would be at avoiding the depleted US defences is hard to assess, since this would depend on the performance of the aircraft’s ECM systems. With the deployment of the AS-15 cruise missile, “Blackjack” will be able to avoid most defensive systems, launching its weapons from stand off range.

Europe’s meager bomber force

For Britain’s Royal Air Force, the 1982 Falklands War was the finale of some 65 years of manned bomber operations. The last surviving Vulcan bombers – a handful of K.2 tankers – were retired in May 1984. France continues to operate around 35 Dassault Mirage IVA bombers, but this large delta-winged bomber is beginning to show its age. The original armament was a single first-generation nuclear weapon carried in a semi-buried ventral location, but 18 are being retrofitted to the Mirage IVP standard as carriers for the ASMP cruise missile. The modification will ass an inertial navigation system (the IVA uses a Doppler radar as its primary navaid), computers, new cockpit displays, and a digital datalink used to pass data to the missile prior to launch. An earlier rebuild programme modified 12 aircraft as Mirage IVR photo-reconnaissance aircraft.

China’s aging bombers

The only other nation to operate strategic nuclear bombers is China, which has a fleet of more than 100 Xian B-6 (Tu-16 “Badgers”). Despite its age, the piston engined B-29 remains in Chinese service in the form of around 80 Tu-4 copies. The military usefulness of such an old design must be minimal, but like the Soviets, the Chinese seldom throw military hardware away. Data sheets on Chinese high-explosive bombs issued in 1984 even included Soviet-built World War II combat types such as the Tu-2 as being suitable carriers for such stores.

            Small numbers of Tu-16 bombers serve with the Egyptian Air Force, while Libya and Iraq operate the Tu-22 Blinder. Although able to carry free-falling high-explosive bombs, these constitute only token long-range bombing forces. Today, only the superpowers can afford to deploy long-range bomber arms.

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