use six-hundred-gallon external fuel tanks, which extend typical mission range 25 % to 35 %; but the U.S. Air Force has stuck with the standard 370 gallon tanks. Lockheed has recently developed a pair of conformal fuel tanks which hug the upper surface of the fuselage. To cope with the increased weight, the landing gear and brakes are being strengthened. This 'enhanced strategic' version will reportedly be able to fly deep penetration missions like the F- 15E.
There are other ideas to keep the F-16 alive. In the life cycle of any combat aircraft program, weight growth is almost inevitable, leading to a gradual loss of agility. Considerable research and development has gone into finding ways to compensate for this in the F-16. One experimental variant was the F-16XL, with a greatly enlarged 'cranked arrow' delta wing. Another experiment was the Multi-Axis Thrust Vectoring (MATV) engine nozzle, which uses hydraulic actuators to deflect the exhaust up to 17deg in any direction. A very promising future enhancement is an enlarged wing which could be the basis for a third generation of production Vipers.
The ultimate replacement for the F-16 is already evolving, under the acronym JAST, which stands for Joint Advanced Strike Technology. This is likely to be a single-seat, single-engine aircraft that may come into service sometime around 2010, if the Navy, Marines, and Air Force can manage to cooperate enough to impress Congress with the need for a new generation of manned combat aircraft. It will probably incorporate low-observables technologies, but not the super-stealthy features of the F-117, B-2, or F-22. Also, it may wind up using vectored thrust to achieve short takeoff and vertical landing.
ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL B-1B LANCER
It may seem perverse to describe a bomber as sexy, but when you get up close to the B-1B, the sinuous curves and sculptural form of the airframe radiate an almost erotic energy, looking like smooth flawless skin over warm pulsing muscles rather than aluminum and composite panels riveted to steel and aluminum ribs. Pilots like to say that if a plane looks good, it flies good, and the B-1B proves the point. The plane holds most of the world records for time-to-altitude with heavy payloads, and it has flight characteristics more like a fighter plane than a bomber with twice the weight-carrying capacity of the classic B-52 Stratofortress which it was designed to replace.
Few modern aircraft programs have involved such bitter and protracted political battles as the B-1—or so many radical redesigns — and still made it into squadron service. The B-1 story began with the cancellation of the North American Rockwell XB-70 Valkyrie in 1964. This huge dart-shaped aircraft was designed to fly nuclear strike and reconnaissance missions at Mach 3 above 80,000 feet/24,384 meters. The growing effectiveness of American ICBMs and the Soviet development of surface-to-air missiles (as demonstrated by the downing of the U-2 flown by Francis Gary Powers in 1960) and high-speed, high-altitude interceptors like the MiG-25 threatened, it seemed, to make the manned bomber as obsolete as horse cavalry.
But there was still life in bombers. If there was no safety in high altitude, then a high-speed, low-level penetrator might still get through the thick wall of the Soviet air defense network, but only if a thicket of technical problems could be solved. Low-level means from 50 to 500 feet/15.2 to 152.4 meters above the ground, where the air is dense and you need a lot of power to push it aside. Simple enough over the Nevada salt flats perhaps; but in rough terrain, the mountains and hills are much denser, and you can't push them aside. You have to go up and over them, hugging the contours but avoiding the violent roller-coaster excursions that leave both crew and airframe overstressed and fatigued.
Moreover, fuel considerations make it impossible for an aircraft to fly a low-level dash at supersonic speeds while still carrying a useful payload to a strategically meaningful range, say 7,500 nm./13,716 km. For reasonable fuel economy and fast transit to the enemy border, any new bomber would have to cruise at high subsonic speed above 25,000 feet/7,620 meters, before descending for the run in to the target. One way to achieve this goal is to use 'variable geometry' wings. That is, you change the sweep angle of the wings to optimize lift and minimize drag under a wide range of flight conditions. Variable geometry has been successfully implemented on fighter-sized aircraft like the MiG-23 Flogger, F-111, F-14 Tomcat, and Panavia Tornado, but on a big bomber it requires actuators of enormous power and a pivot bearing of immense strength.
In 1970, the Air Force chose Rockwell International (formerly North American Aviation) to develop the 'Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft.' It would be powered by four GE F101 turbofan engines, each rated at 30,000 lb./ 13,600 kg. thrust with afterburner. The first B-1A was rolled out on October 26th, 1974, and the Strategic Air Command (SAC) hoped to procure a total force of 240 of the new bombers to replace the B-52s that had worn themselves out over Vietnam. In those years of runaway inflation, the cost of the plane escalated rapidly, and the complex software-driven avionics system was plagued with the usual development problems inherent in the early systems of this type. Then in 1977, President Jimmy Carter canceled the program in favor of long-range cruise missiles launched from the existing fleet of B-52s. The four completed prototypes were nevertheless retained in service for testing, though one was eventually lost due to a crew error in regulating the aircraft's fuel supply and center of gravity, and another as a result of a collision with a pelican. Bird strikes are a major hazard to low-flying aircraft. Like most tactical aircraft, the B-1 is designed to withstand high-speed collision with a 4 lb./1.8 kg. bird, even on the windscreen transparency. Unfortunately, at 600 knots/1,097.8 kph., the 15 lb./6.8 kg. pelican that hit the Test B-1 was a lethal projectile, taking out a significant part of the hydraulic system and causing the loss of the aircraft.
Meanwhile, by the end of the 1970s, the B-52s weren't getting any younger, and the SAC bomber force, with no follow-on replacement program, was facing obsolescence. As might be imagined, the SAC leadership lobbied hard to get the B-1 program back on track, with lots of support from Rockwell and those who believed in the continued importance and viability of the manned strategic bomber as part of the American nuclear triad (bombers, ICBM, and SLBMs). And in 1981 President Ronald Reagan announced the decision to build one hundred B-1B bombers — externally similar to the B-1A but radically redesigned in many respects. The production of those one hundred aircraft had been at the heart of his presidential campaign promise to rebuild the American military force to face down the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The first production bomber, christened the B-1B Lancer (after a famous pre-World War II interceptor), rolled out of Rockwell's Palmdale, California, plant on September 4th, 1984, with the IOC of the first squadron being achieved on October 1st, 1986.
While it is officially designated the 'Lancer,' the B-1B's crews call it 'the Bone.' Currently, B-1B squadrons are based at Dyess AFB, Texas; Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota; and McConnell AFB, Kansas. In addition, the six B-1Bs of Ellsworth's 34th Bomb Squadron, now attached to the 366th Composite Wing, are hopefully scheduled to move to Mountain Home AFB in 1998, when expanded facilities are completed. Finally, two aircraft are permanently based at Edwards AFB, California, for continuing testing and evaluation of new B-1B weapons and systems. The B-1B force did not participate in Desert Storm, since it was then dedicated mainly to the nuclear deterrent role, crew training and software modifications for delivering conventional weapons were incomplete, and it was not really needed in the Gulf.
The place to explore a B-1B is the flight line of Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City, South Dakota, which is the home of the 28th Bombardment Wing, as well as the 34th Bombardment Squadron, which is assigned to the 366th Wing at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. When you see a B-1B on the flight line at Ellsworth, the first thing you feel is speed. The Bone seems to be moving — and fast — just standing still on the ramp. Then there are the sensuous curves. As you get closer, the details that show the quality of the B-1B's workmanship begin to show, and you begin to notice that the join lines between panels and access doors are almost impossible to see without knowing exactly where to look. Part of the reason for this has to do with the desire of the USAF and Rockwell to make the B-1B as small to enemy radars as possible. While technically not a stealth aircraft, it is considered a 'low-observable' airframe, which does give it some penetration capabilities that even small fighters like the F-16 lack. The four afterburning F101 engines are mounted in underwing gondolas, with the two bomb bays located in the fuselage aft of the crew compartment. Except for a pattern of white markings around the in-flight refueling receptacle, B-1s are currently painted the same uniform dark gray as the F-111 and F-15E fleets, with small, low-visibility national markings. In peacetime, B-1 crews have applied some of the most creative nose artwork in the Air Force, but the rampaging animals and well-endowed young ladies would probably be painted over for combat missions, to reduce the visual signature. Moreover, the coming of women to the flight crews of USAF combat aircraft has imposed certain limits of taste upon such decorations, probably to the advantage of all concerned, but to the detriment of a
