The Winnipeg Sun April 09, 2003
B-1B Blasts Used To Target Iraqi Leader
By Mark Perry
If Saddam Hussein was killed in the Monday bombing, then a U.S. Air Force crew may soon be painting a moustachioed beret-wearing silhouette on the nose of their B-1B Lancer bomber. Coalition officials have confirmed that it was a B-1B that dropped four 2,000-lb. precision-guided "bunker-buster" bombs where Saddam was believed to be holding a meeting. The B-1B is the only supersonic heavy bomber in the U.S. aviary. Born as the B-1A intercontinental nuclear bomber in the early 1970s after the failed XB-70 program, the swing-wing bomber was later converted to a conventional bomber to become the B-1B, with major revisions in offensive avionics, defensive avionics, weapon payload, range and speed. Four General Electric F-101-GE-102 turbofan engines with afterburner adding up to 120,000 pounds of thrust propel the 146-foot-long, 477,000-pound (214,650-kg) bomber up to speeds of Mach 1.25 at 50,000 feet. Carrying a crew of four, the bomber has an unrefuelled range of 7,455 miles, or 3,444 miles with normal weapons load. Depending on the type of bomb, the B-1B can carry from 12 to 84 conventional bombs, or 12 to 30 precision-guided bombs. Unlike conventional large aircraft, the pilots fly the B-1B with joysticks, rather than control wheels. According to Globalsecurity.org, in Desert Storm, Kosovo and Afghanistan the B-1B has performed outstandingly.
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