Rockwell B-1B Lancer, America's heaviest bomber

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caid’s suggestion #160

I want to suggest an interesting heavy tactical jet bomber, the B1B Lancer.

the B1 Lancer was a long range high speed strategic bomber who was design to carry the playload of the B-52 bomber and the speed of the B-58 in order to replace both bomber. the concept started in the 60s and a small series of Prototype called B1A flow in 1974 and show interesting performance. the plane was capable to achieve the speed of March 2.2 at high altitude and carry a 75,000 pound playload of bombs. but despite the good potential, the program was canceled in 1977 in favour of the development of the B2 Spirits and because of the introduction of the AMG-86 cruise missiles who made the B1 lancer an unessessairy bomber.
the story of the B1 didn’t stoped there as in 1981 the program was revived as interim bomber due to the delay with the development of the B2 Spirit. the B1A was altered to give higher low altitude speed, lower high altitude speed, receive improved airframe, upgraded avionic and more fuel tank which gave the B1B variant. the B1B flow for the first time in 1984 and was introduced to service in 1985. by 1989, 100x B1B were delivered to the US air forces as strategic bomber. they served in the Strategic air command. in 1992 the nuclear capacity of the plane was disable and the plane only used conventional armament. it saw action in 1998 during the operation deser fox, and again in Kosovo in 1999. the planes also saw action during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan war of 2001. as for 2021, 45x B1B lancer remain in services in the USAF. it is intended to remain in services until 2036 when the B-21 would be ready to replace it completely.
many variant of the B1B was put into services. they are called Block A to Block E. the difference are mainly internal and are simple up-grade done over time

Block A - conventional strategic bomber (with nuclear capacity)
Block B - improved Synthetic Aperture Radar, and upgrades to the Defensive Countermeasures System and was fielded in 1995- no more Nuclear Capacity
Block C - enhanced capability for delivery of up to 30 cluster bomb units (CBUs) per sortie with modifications made to 50 bomb racks.
Block D - Near Precision Capability via improved weapons and targeting systems, and added advanced secure communications capabilities. The first part of the electronic countermeasures upgrade added Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), ALE-50 towed decoy system, and anti-jam radios.
Block E - upgraded the avionics computers and incorporated the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD), the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), and the AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air to Surface Standoff Munition), substantially improving the bomber’s capability. Upgrades were completed in September 2006

I consider them to be more or less minor up-grade which could be considered as a single plane with researchable modification.

Armament

the B1B lancer is a pure bomber. it is not intended to be fighting against aircraft or ground targets with guns. as such it just do not have any. it is just a huge defenseless plane. while it is defenseless, it is not harmless as the plane is carrying a bombs and missiles, and there is a lot of them.
the missiles are mainly anti-ship missiles and were incorporated in the early 2000s to ensure the US naval superiority in the Pacific where a nation’s growing navy is threatening the American supremacy in the pacific. those are split in different series from Block A to Block E which are upgrade Variant of the B1B, the difference are mainly internal and improve their armament capacity.

the B1B have 6 external hardpoint who can carry up to 50,000 lbs of bombs. this playload is hard to achieve with conventional bomb which normally only weight 500 pound. there is a dual adaptor to allow each hardpoints to carry more than one bomb.
additionally 3 internal bomb bay are present in the B1B which can carry a total of 75,000 pound of bombs. theoretically each should be capable to have 25,000 pound, but since the plane is limited to 75,000 pound, it is not excluded that each bomb bay can carry more than 25,000 as long the total playload of all 3 bomb bay is not above 75,000 pound.

Block A & B

Mk-82 500-lb bombs- 28x bombs per bay (84 total)
Mk-84 2000-lb bombs- 8x bombs per bay (24 total)
Mk 62 500-lb naval mine - 24 per bay (84 total)
Mk 65 2000-lb naval mine - 4 per bay (12 total)

Block C

CBU-87- 950-lb cluster bomb - 10 per bay (30 total)
CBU-89- 1000-lb cluster mine - 10 per bay (30 total)
CBU-97- 1000-lb cluster bomb - 10 per bay (30 total)

Block D

CBU-103- 950-lb cluster bomb - 10 per bay (30 total)
CBU-104- 1000-lb cluster mine - 10 per bay (30 total)
CBU-105- 1000-lb cluster bomb - 10 per bay (30 total)
GBU-31- 2000-lb guided bomb - 8 per bay (24 total)
GBU-38- 500-lb guided bomb - 6 for the first 2 bay, 3 for the last one (15 total)
GBU-54 Laser guided bomb - 6 for the first 2 bay, 3 for the last one (15 total)

Block E

6-pack GBU-39 300-lb bomb - 8 per bay (24 x 6 total)
AGM-158 JASSM air-to-surface cruise missiles - 8 per bay (24 total)

Flight performance
the plane is pretty fast for a bomber. it is powered by 4× General Electric F101-GE-102 afterburning turbofan engines, 17,390 lbf (77.4 kN) thrust each dry, 30,780 lbf (136.9 kN) with afterburner. this is enough to allow the plane to reach 1,335 km/h at 12,000 m and 1,126 km/h at sea level. the plane features a Variable-sweep wing design which gives the plane a better flight performance depending on the speed. the plane has a ceiling of 18,000 m and a climbing speed of 28 m/sec. it has a huge range of 5,500 km when loaded. the plane weighs about 216,000 kg when loaded. This makes it one of the heaviest combat planes in the world. while the plane is fast, it is not particularly maneuverable. this is due to the heavyweight and the large size. It would be difficult to dodge missiles.

Avionic

the plane features many built-in instruments. notably the AN/APQ-164 passive electronically scanned array radar placed in the nose. This radar has a range of 300 km. It also has an AN/ALQ-161 RF electronic countermeasures system designed to detect incoming threats. There is also the AN/ASQ-184 which is a Radio Frequency Jammer for incoming threats. the plane has a total of 960 flare/chalk placed behind the cockpit in two groups of 4x hatch having 120 chalk/flare each. this should at least be enough to give a chance to not be hit by a missile. a cool thing is when the crew got to eject, it’s not the men jumping in parachutes or the seats being ejecting out of the plane. it’s the whole Cabin that is popping out with all the crew inside. it would be a cool feature for the game.
for targeting, the plane is mostly using dump bombs which require no real targeting pod. the plane still features a synthetic aperture radar which allows it to detect and track moving ground targets.
the aircraft is not stealthy, but the design and the use of radar-absorbing material, notably around the engines, reduce the aircraft’s radar signature.
additionally, a AN/AAQ-33 Sniper Advance targeting pod can be installed on the external hardpoint to improve the accuracy of the guided weapons.


Sources

this suggestion was made at the request of @AlvisWisla

12 Likes
2

+1, but only with game reforms/RB EC

Also with this camo

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5 Likes
3

Reforms aren’t really needed.
The great thing about B-1 Lancer is that it can function just fine in air RB and air sim as-is, as a ~10.3 bomber.

4 Likes
4

Make it the B1R. I want to have my flying B-oner

3 Likes
5

Sure it can run but I would prefer to not be within 20km of enemies at all times.

Strat bomber LARP would only be semi-viable in SIM and we both know how bomber cockpits are modeled :/

6

This wouldn’t be suitable as an aircraft, seriously if you want a B1 experience load up an mirage 4K or an F111 with nothing but bombs and see how long it takes for you to lose your sanity.
no one plays the bombers as it is!
When’s the last time you’ve seen a game with more than 3 F-111’s or F-105’s more than a month after their release, most likely never, or just once
Furthermore, it would just be a flying target it would be the heaviest aircraft in the game whist it’s max speed is Mach 1.2 and it’s operation service ceiling isn’t that high at around 12000 metres.
This aircraft would most likely only be flown in by diehard fans of it and have likely been wanting it since the F-105 got added.
This would be a fun aircraft though, think of trying to land this thing in pilotage tho fr.

3 Likes
7

The only value it would have is as a nuke bomber in RB or bomber for sim.

I agree with you if added it is just purely a novelty aircraft.

3 Likes
8

Is that a newer model B-1? Looks like it has a missile warning sensor between the cockpit and radar, similar to how the F-15EX has the protrusions where the sensors would be

1 Like
9

No it’s the oldest one, 1998 IIRC

1 Like
10

+1
With Xian H-6K, Avro vulcan and Tu-160

4 Likes
11

The plane would be perfectly playable in sim, just like many planes that are no longer playable in realistic or arcade but can stand out in other mods

1 Like
12

I was debating making a suggestion for this, actually

13

it would be viable in all game modes also it has flares that weigh 3 pounds each

14

and are -just- simple up-grades done over time

15

Under no circumstances is a B-1 surviving in arcade mode and past the merge in rb

16

That’s the thing you don’t merge you just gun it, also arcades dead at top tier air, so its mostly bots (ex: I’ve survived as an f-111 in RB and was the last one left despite me not even carrying a gun)

1 Like
17

Bomber gameplay would be running away simulator, not what would actually be fun

The way to make it fun would be to have reforms for strategic bombers

18

you know the b-1 is a low altitude supersonic bomber right? that means you use it more like this: (xbox app on chrombook is slow so give me a few)

19

ABSOLUTLEY but it should spawn from like 30km distance to the battlefield cuz pantsir can spawn kill it lol

20

shouldn’t we get the b52 before? pretty sure the b1 was supposed to replace the b52