As China continues its defiant attempts to colonize the contested islands in the East
and South China Seas, the US has kept showing its military might to deter such expansionist
ambitions.
The situation has remained critical for several years, but the global standoff took a spectacular
turn in the summer of 2016 when the US did something unprecedented: it deployed three
of its most influential and iconic bombers to fly on the same mission.
As the incredible footage shows, the Air Force Global Strike Command unleashed its three
strategic bombers for the first time in history during the influential sortie: the iconic
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, the variable geometry Rockwell B-1 Lancer, and the one and only
Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.
Compared to tactical bombers, these specialized warplanes are designed to pierce enemy territory
and deliver colossal amounts of payloads into the heart of an enemy nation to cripple its
ability to wage war.
Such an endeavor usually means carrying nuclear weapons.
Ultimately, having the US release its three star strategic bombers in a single mission
was more than a revolutionary endevor; it was also a clear message for China…
Unprecedented Event
Recent photographs and footage captured a moment in which the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress,
the Rockwell B-1 Lancer, and the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit strategic bombers took
to the sky together during the summer of 2016, the first time in history the iconic aircraft
have cruised together.
The warplanes performed the first coordinated mission in the US Pacific Command Area of
Operations, and after taking off from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, they conducted a flyover
and then carried out simultaneous operations in the South China Sea and Northeast Asia.
Each bomber represented a different age of American bomber technology and doctrine; still,
the three magnificent warplanes are still in service because each of them continues
to provide the Air Force with specific advantages for a wide array of military operations.
Brigadier General Douglas Cox, the 36th Wing commander, said about the iconic moment: (QUOTE)
“By doing this, we showed the world we can expertly integrate three different platforms
with unique capabilities, meeting mission by providing the president of the United States
sovereign options to decisively employ airpower across the entire spectrum of engagement,
thus achieving our wing’s motto, we are ‘prepared to prevail.’”
Each of the three platforms symbolized the ingenuity of American aircraft design, and
the raw power of the US military across the span of almost 70 years.
The unique strategic bombers were designed to bypass the defences of enemy nations and
rain destruction over their capitals and manufacture centers.
It is widely believed that sending the three powerhouses on the same mission to fly over
the regions contested by China was meant as unprecedented show of force to remind the
Chinese that the US holds some of the most devastating bombers on Earth.
Stratofortress
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress was the spiritual successor to the defining Boeing B-29 Superfortress,
which became the first nuclear age strategic bomber and rewrote history by delivering the
atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War 2.
Following its predecessor’s steps, the B-52 Stratofortress was designed exclusively as
a long-range strategic bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons to the very center of Moscow
if the Cold War escalated.
The aircraft was conceived in the 1940s and took its maiden flight in the early 1950s.
It is the oldest of the three American strategic bombers, and it lacks much of the advanced
stealth technology the other two have; still, it has remained in service after 70 years
due to its superb performance at high subsonic speeds and relatively low operating costs.
During the Cold War, the Stratofortress became a central emblem of the nuclear deterrence
policy.
The aircraft was used to patrol the vast Europe-USSR borders to deter the Soviet Union from launching
a nuclear attack on Europe as the US could retaliate immediately and with devastating
effectiveness.
As surface-to-air defense systems and advanced radar networks became prevalent in the Soviet
Union, the B-52 became less capable of performing high-altitude missions.
However, its incredible versatility allowed it to continue its deterrence role as a low-altitude
bomber and as a conventional bomber after the fall of the Soviet Union.
If the US wanted to penetrate other nuclear superpowers and deliver nuclear warheads to
their capitals, it would need to develop a new generation of strategic bombers capable
of circumventing enemy defenses.
The Bone
The logical solution to create a new generation of long-range deep penetration bombers was
simply to make them faster.
If the warplanes could travel several times faster than the speed of sound, enemy missiles
and fighters would be incapable of intercepting the bombers.
As such, the US began developing long-range supersonic bombers such as the North American
XB-70 Valkyrie and the Rockwell B-1 Lancer, also known as the Bone.
Ultimately, the Valkyrie would never see the light of day, but the B-1 Lancer would become
one of the most important US strategic bombers.
The idea was simple: to build a platform that would combine the Mach 2 speeds of the B-58
Hustler with the range and payload capacity of the B-52 and then replace both bombers.
Still, the Lancer project would be suddenly halted as its highly high developing costs
and the simultaneous development of the B-2 stealth bomber rendered its role unjustifiable.
However, when the B-2 was delayed in 1981, the Bone was revisited to fill in for the
delayed stealth bomber.
The revised version of the Lancer could only reach Mach 1.25, but it was more stable and
could achieve faster speeds during subsonic operations.
The new redesigned Bone was named B-1B, and it was converted to serve a conventional bombing
role.
The aircraft was initially deployed for combat during Operation Desert Fox in 1998 and again
during the NATO operations in Kosovo against Yugoslavia the following year.
It has continually supported US and NATO military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, with an inventory
of over 40 models.
The Stealth Bomber
The B-1 was shelved and eventually turned into a conventional bomber because a more
advanced aircraft was being developed by the US Air Force.
The aircraft would turn out to be the most expensive military project ever executed by
the US, costing tens of billions of dollars just in research and development, with each
individual aircraft priced at over two billion dollars and each flight hour costing over
100,000 dollars in maintenance, training, and execution costs.
The B-2 bomber took a very different approach to the B-1; instead of trying to sidestep
Soviet defenses with raw speed, it made use of the recently developed stealth technology,
which allowed it to appear almost invisible to enemy radars.
The new approach was not only better but essential, as, by 1980, the Soviets had developed much
faster air defense systems and interceptor fighters that could intercept American bombers
even if they were supersonic.
However, the enemy could not attack what it could not see, so the monumentally ambitious
B-2 venture became the logical solution to America’s strategic bomber problem.
With its unique geometry and shape, its electromagnetic absorbing materials, and emissions masking
technologies, the B-2 aircraft was the ultimate bomber in the world, and it remains unmatched
to this day.
Despite the billions of dollars poured into the project and the continuous delays it suffered,
the Soviet Union collapsed just a couple of years after the B-2 was deployed, suddenly
taking away the Stealth Bomber’s reason for being.
Still, the iconic US bomber was modified to serve as a conventional bomber, quickly becoming
the most survivable aircraft in the world as it was virtually undetectable.
With such commanding capabilities, it became a formidable asset for the US military during
Operation Desert Storm and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Despite its high cost, the stealth bomber has proved to be a wise investment, with two
bombers able to deal the same damage as dozens of conventional tactical bombers while remaining
virtually untouchable.
Now, the Stealth Bomber, the Supersonic Lancer and the original Strategic Bomber are ready
to deploy together and take advantage of all of their technology, armament and crew training
to obliberate America’s enemies at a moment’s notice.
The historic photographs of the three aircraft flying together are a decisive show of strength
from the Air Force Global Strike Command and a clear message to China, one of the only
two nations with strategic bombers in the world.
The US will do everything to protect its allies in the region, and it has at its disposal
the most powerful bombers in the history of mankind.
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