[sci.military] No B-1's in the Gulf

krg2@po.CWRU.Edu (Kevin R. Glazier) (02/04/91)

From: krg2@po.CWRU.Edu (Kevin R. Glazier)

As an AFROTC cadet and a future pilot candidate, I wondered the
same thing many of you were wondering...why are we using B-52's
in Iraq and not B-1's.  I asked my CO about this and it seems that
although some have had problems (engine fires, software bugs, etc.)
the most important reason that there are no B-1's in the Gulf
is that neither the B-1 nor the B-1B are certified to carry 
conventional payloads...it has a strictly nuclear role. (It has 
not, as some have suggested, replaced the B-52 in the strategic
triad (yet)--merely supplemented it.) 

-- 
Kevin R. Glazier |     Michelson 540       | "War is our profession,
    C/4th/C      |  (The Officer's Club)   |  but peace is our goal..."
    U.S.A.F.     |  ********************   |    -Strategic Air Command
    "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." -- Thomas Paine