The Supersonic BONE: A Development and Operational History of the B-1 Bomber

394 Pages·2022·269.342 MB·English

by  Kenneth Katz

The Supersonic BONE
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The Supersonic BONE
A Development and Operational
History of the B-1 Bomber
Kenneth P. Katz
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First published in Great Britain in 2022 by
Pen & Sword Aviation
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Yorkshire – Philadelphia
Copyright © Kenneth P. Katz, 2022
ISBN 978 1 39901 471 7
The right of Kenneth P. Katz to be identified as Author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Contents
Introduction vi
Acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations x
Chapter 1 The Rise of the American Strategic Bomber 1
Chapter 2 B-70 Valkyrie 4
Chapter 3 B-1A 14
Chapter 4 From A to B 61
Chapter 5 The Supersonic Cadillac 79
Chapter 6 Nuclear Weapons 131
Chapter 7 B-1B Development and Testing 141
Chapter 8 Building the B-1B 194
Chapter 9 SAC Service 206
Chapter 10 After the Cold War 231
Chapter 11 Combat Debut 273
Chapter 12 The Global War on Terror 281
Chapter 13 Maintaining and Modernizing the BONE 323
Chapter 14 The B-1B and Air Force Global Strike Command 333
Chapter 15 Global Presence 343
Chapter 16 Twilight of the BONE 350
Bibliography 357
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Introduction
I
n mid-March 2002, a detachment of US Army Special Forces was in Khowst, Afghanistan,
winding down the last few days of operations before returning home. Soon after midnight,
the Taliban surrounded their position and attacked from all sides. Automatic weapons fire
cracked overhead and mortar shells hit the compound. US Air Force Staff Sergeant Brian
Wilchenski, a Tactical Air Control Party airman, was attached to the Special Forces. He
furiously worked his radio, trying to contact any aircraft flying over the area that could provide
close air support. Fortunately for the Americans, Wilchenski was soon talking to the crew of
a B-1B Lancer bomber from the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron orbiting nearby. When
it entered service, that bomber had been loaded with nuclear weapons and on alert, ready to
streak off the runway and escape incoming Soviet missiles, then fly to the Soviet Union and
deliver twenty-four thermonuclear weapons. Five years earlier, it had been ready to shower
Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard divisions with tens of thousands of bomblets, minelets
and homing munitions if they tried to invade a neighbor. But now it was flying top cover as
Americans and their allies fought Islamist terrorists and insurgents in one of the world’s most
remote and primitive countries.
The B-1B carried a load of GPS-guided 2,000lb bombs, which it could deliver with excellent
accuracy to a set of coordinates. But a 2,000lb bomb produces a massive blast and a lethal spray
of fragments that could kill people hundreds of feet from the point of impact. The Taliban
fighters were closing in on the Special Forces, and any bomb that killed them would probably
also kill the Americans. Wilchenski had an idea which he shared with the bomber crew.
Thirty seconds later, the B-1B did a low pass over the building that housed the Special
Forces. It was going almost as fast as its sound waves, so its approach was nearly silent,
until it passed overhead and the pilot pushed the throttles to fully forward, lighting off the
afterburners. Suddenly the battlefield was engulfed in the ear-pounding scream of four massive
jet engines and the dark was illuminated by the fiery exhausts of the B-1B engines and also
the countermeasures flares that it fired. Stunned by the display of sound and light, the Taliban
attack was thrown off balance by the flyover. The B-1B crew repeated the low passes twice
more, meanwhile obtaining the assistance of an AC-130 gunship that could provide more
discriminate firepower.
The story of the B-1 is one of a circuitous path. The B-52 Stratofortress bomber had not yet
entered service when the US Air Force began to think about its replacement. The first attempt
to replace the B-52 was the exotic and impractical B-70, of which only two prototypes ever flew.
The second attempt was the B-1A, a controversial weapon system that was cancelled before it
ever went into production. The third attempt was the B-1B Lancer, which was produced and
fielded operationally. But the B-1B never fully replaced the B-52. It entered service in a hurry
and with serious flaws, and the end of the Cold War left it without its primary mission. After
the Cold War, the B-1B was the subject of an extensive upgrade of its capabilities, and it became
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Introduction vii
highly effective in conflicts completely different from the global thermonuclear war for which
it was designed to deter, if possible, and fight if all else failed.
The story of the B-1 is one of interconnections between military requirements, doctrine and
strategy, technology, and politics. It’s also a story of people: aeronautical researchers, engineers,
program managers, production workers, Presidents of the United States and their appointees,
commanders, aircrew, maintainers, and many others.
Most American military aircraft have an official name as well as a designation: the
F-4 Phantom II, the C-130 Hercules, the CH-47 Chinook, and the P-51 Mustang, for
example. Often, those who fly and maintain a type of aircraft will give it an informal name that
is more commonly used than the official name. The B-52 Stratofortress became the BUFF,
the UH-1 Iroquois was always called the Huey, F-16 Fighting Falcon was referred to as the
Viper, and the S-3 Viking got the nickname Hoover. The B-1A never got an official name
and the B-1B was officially named the Lancer only in 1990. The official name was promptly
ignored and the B-1 came to be known as the BONE (B-One). To this day that’s what the B-1
community calls its aircraft.
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Acknowledgements
This book was made possible by the assistance of many people and I am grateful for each
of their contributions.
US Air Force public affairs personnel provided access to official US Air Force support
and facilitated my visit to Dyess AFB. Thank you to Major Anastasia D. Schmidt, Technical
Sergeant Andrew A. Davis, Senior Airman Emily L. Copeland, Airman 1st Class River Bruce,
Airman 1st Class Kylee A. Thomas, and Carla A. Pampe. At Dyess AFB, Major John F. Hough
was my instructor pilot during an unforgettable session in the B-1B simulator. Numerous
personnel at Dyess AFB shared their knowledge and facilitated my photography.
Jeannine Geiger of the Air Force Test Center History Office supplied me with historical
photographs of B-1A and B-1B flight testing.
The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Nebraska graciously allowed
me to photograph the B-1A bomber in their collection. Thank you to Deb Hermann for
arranging permission.
Michael Simons of the National Electronics Museum provided me with previously
unpublished photographs of radars.
Several talented photographers and illustrators contributed their work to this book:
Roelof-Jan Gort, Ken Middleton, Erik Simonsen and Ian Tate.
A large number of individuals shared with me a treasure trove of photographs, manuals, and
documentation which immeasurably added to the depth and comprehensiveness of this book.
Many people who have developed, manufactured, tested, maintained, supported or flown the
B-1 spoke to me about their experiences with this historic weapon system. Their subsequent
reviews of the manuscript greatly improved its detail and accuracy. Craig Baumann, Master
Sergeant Archie E. Browning, USAF (retired), Staff Sergeant Anthony B. ‘Blaine’ Cason,
USAF (honorably discharged), Lieutenant Colonel Ricky W. Carver, USAF (retired),
Technical Sergeant Darrell W. Chesnut, USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel ‘Chunks’,
USAF (retired), Senior Master Sergeant Wesley T. ‘Skip’ Clark, USAF (retired), Colonel
Jonathan M. ‘Claw’ Creer, USAF, Colonel Charles R. ‘Russ’ Davis, USAF (retired), Captain
Scott M. Dayton, USAF (honorably discharged), Kenneth Decker, Chief Master Sergeant
Jerry Densmore, USAF (retired), Technical Sergeant Michael D. DeWitt, USAF (retired),
Major Norman K. ‘Keith’ Dodderer, USAF (retired), Technical Sergeant Kyle C. Fagin,
USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel Gary H. ‘Smokey’ Flynt, USAF (retired), Technical
Sergeant David J. Fransen, USAF (retired), Chief Master Sergeant George A. Gilbert, USAF
(retired), Colonel Gordon P. ‘Guv’ Greaney, USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel Timothy
Griffith, USAF, Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence H. ‘Larry’ Haskell, USAF (retired), Colonel
Stephen A. Henry, USAF (retired), Colonel David L. ‘Lowell’ Hickey, USAF (retired),
Lt Col Daemon E. ‘PBAR’ Hobbs, USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel Kevin R. ‘Hooter’
Houdek, USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel John R. ‘Ray’ Houle, USAF (retired), Technical
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Acknowledgements ix
Sergeant Jeffery D. Kahn, USAF (retired), Colonel Randy ‘Rudder’ Kaufman, USAF (retired),
Senior Master Sergeant Chuck Klein, USAF (retired), Major General Perry L. Lamy, USAF
(retired), James A. Leasure, Major Robert C. ‘Von’ Liebman, USAF (retired), Lieutenant
Colonel Marc N. ‘Sporto’ London, USAF (retired), Kenneth L. Martin, Captain Richard
Maurer, USAF (honorably discharged), Staff Sergeant Henry Miller, USAF (honorably
discharged), Colonel William J. Moran, Jr, USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel Steven
R. ‘Worm’ Myers, USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel Kent L. Payne, USAF (retired), Major
Theodore ‘Brad’ Purvis, USAF (retired), Lieutenant General Richard V. Reynolds, USAF
(retired), Colonel Jerry L. Ross, USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel Jaime R. Silva, USAF
(retired), Erik Simonsen, Greg Spahr, Anthony Spencer, Lieutenant Colonel C. Wayne Staley,
USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel George F. ‘Duck’ Swan, USAF (retired), Lieutenant
Colonel Ernest S. ‘Turk’ Taveras, USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel Addison S. Thompson,
USAF (retired), Lieutenant Colonel Chris ‘Wacky’ Wachter, USAF (retired), Lieutenant
Colonel Otto J. Waniczek, Jr, USAF Reserve (retired), and Chief Master Sergeant Lonnie
Williams, USAF (retired)
The ‘B-1B Bonesmen’ and ‘B-1 Maintainers’ are two private groups on Facebook which
allowed me to join them, even though I have never flown a B-1 or turned a wrench on one. Its
members were authoritative and most helpful sources of information and feedback.
Chris Huestis of PhotoSynthesis LCC in East Hartford, Connecticut did a masterful job of
scanning a small mountain of photographic prints, transparencies, and slides and using them
to create high-quality digital images suitable for publishing.
Several friends diligently reviewed my manuscript and provided feedback, improving the
book in the process. Thank you to J. Campbell ‘Cam’ Martin, Philip B. Pape, and Dr. Robert
M. Scharfman. I take full responsibility for any remaining errors in the book.
Norman D. Goldner was the father of my best friend when I was growing up. He worked at
AIL on the B-1 DAS and would regale us with information about this amazing new airplane,
the B-1. His stories ignited in me an enduring fascination with the BONE that culminated
nearly fifty years later in this book.
My parents encouraged my interest in aviation and aerospace from my earliest years. Shut in
by the COVID-19 pandemic, they diligently applied sharp red pencils to my drafts, catching
mistakes and ambiguities.
George Chamier, Matt Jones, Henry Wilson and the other members of the Pen & Sword team
guided this project from my initial proposal through production. Their expertise, patience, and
professionalism greatly enhanced this book.
My delightful girlfriend Terry Underwood has not the slightest interest in supersonic
swing-wing bombers. To my horror, she refers to all flight vehicles, be they spacecraft, general
aviation aircraft or military jets, as ‘whizzy things’. She has patiently shared me with the BONE
for years while I wrote this book.
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