I am starting on Revell’s 1/72 B-1B & need some advice on loadout;
The kit comes with 16 cruise missiles, in reality have these seen much if any use on the Bone in service? If they have, have/are they likley to have been fitted in/on every available store point as is suggested by this kit?
Thanks.
I know that they often put an auxilary fuel tank in one of the bomb bays. I can’t remember if it’s the 2nd or 3rd bay though
It seems to me that in actual service they mostly deliver gravity bombs, some dumb, probably most are guided.
I’m not sure what their Nuclear Deterent loadout is though. They used to carry SRAMs, but those are now retired. I’d imagine that ALCMs would be a logical replacement for those.
They usually do put a extra full tank in the rear bay. Most B-1s carry mostly JDAMs or dumb bombs, and the occassional cluster bomb.
B-1Bs don’t carry ALCMs or CALCMs, primarily due to the START Treaty.
The B-1B started out as a purely nuclear bomber (as did the B-52H, which is why neither was used in the '91 Gulf War; conventional-capable B-52Gs were used in that conflict).
In the 1990s the B-1B was equipped to carry conventional payloads, although it can still carry nuclear gravity bombs. See this site for details: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/b-1b-variants.htm
Ed