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Bye bye for the Bone(B-1B)?

I have heard sqawk for many years regarding the Air Force contemplating dumping the B-1B. I've heard my fair share of commentary from folks I know who were Maintenance Officers or NCO's with B-1B wings. It's no secret the plane has had its teething troubles from the beginning. That's what happens when a major program is canceled early on only to be resurrected later and rushed into service without ironing out all the bugs. The B-1B had plenty of bugs but large complex weapon systems always do. Eventually, due to a lot of hard work from both the Air Force and the Civilian side of the B-1B's support structure, this Jet has turned out to be a star performer with no equal. It is still expensive to maintain like any large aircraft and especially with variable geometry wings which add another dimension of maintenance needs. But still with taking care to keep them well maintained, the mission capable rate stands very high. The capability and mission flexibility of the B-1B has no equal in the West's Air Forces. It can fly further, with the heaviest payloads and the widest option of mission profiles of any Bomber/Strike platform available. The B-52 is the next best thing but it is now more of a Standoff Platform than a Direct Attack Platform. The B-2 is excellent but there are only 15 or less of them flying. When you calculate the time on ground for maintenance cycles/major overhauls, our Heavy Bomber Force is not at anywhere near it's full strength numbers at any given time. But it is vital for Long Range/Global Strike capability. Fighters/Strike Fighters are needed too but they do not have the range, payload, loiter time, firepower that planes like the B-1B, B-52, and B-2 have. You have to move Fighters into a theater first to deploy them into combat. What if you don't have that option? There's plenty of good enough reasons to keep Manned Bombers around and progress with the next type. For now though, getting rid of the B-1B would be a very misguided mistake. It would further diminish sorely needed capability.
 
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