At the beginning of the new year, the US Air Force suffered a blow to the head, and the B-1B strategic bomber, known as the "weapon for containing China," crashed. Why do some people say that the tragedy will continue?
First, the US military has made another appearance abroad! The "sharp weapon to contain China" has crashed
Recently, a B-1B strategic bomber of the US Air Force suddenly crashed while landing.
The U.S. military said the plane was on a training mission at the time of the accident and all four crew members escaped without incident.
However, they said the cause of the crash needed to be further investigated.
Some US media speculated that the crash of the fighter plane may be related to the weather conditions at that time.
B-1B strategic bomber
However, some people familiar with the US military bluntly said that the crash of the B-1B bomber had been foreshadowed for a long time.
After all, there have been quite a few accidents with this model in recent years.
In 2018, a B-1B bomber suddenly caught fire in the middle of the flight and had to make an emergency landing.
In 2022, two people were injured when a B-1B bomber at Days Air Force Base caught fire during maintenance.
Last year, a B-1B bomber scheduled to participate in the Xi mission suddenly broke down and had to make an emergency landing in Japan.
In fact, the frequent accidents of B-1B bombers are inseparable from the following factors.
2. B-1B bomber: high-frequency sorties, "sick to work"
First, high-frequency sorties.
Although the B-1B bomber is an old model that has been in service since the mid-80s of the last century, its real combat capabilities are not weak at all.
It has a maximum speed of up to Mach 1.2 and a bomb load of 60 tons.
For this reason, it is also known as the "Lancer".
Because of this, B-1B bombers have been active on the front lines of global conflicts.
According to US military statistics, during the 1999 air raid on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the sorties of B-1B bombers accounted for only 2 percent of the total sorties of the NATO Air Force. However, 20% of the ammunition was dropped by such aircraft.
In Operation Enduring Freedom, which targeted Afghanistan, B-1B bombers, which made only 2% of sorties, dropped more than 40% of precision munitions.
In the war on terror, B-1B bombers flew 12,000 combat missions.
Such a high frequency of sorties naturally had a serious impact on the B-1B bombers, and the B-1B bombers began to have frequent problems.
High-frequency sorties make B-1B bombers frequent
The second is to "go to work with illness".
Despite all indications that the B-1B bomber is no longer suitable for continued service, the US Air Force still insists on using the B-1B bomber as an important weapon in dealing with China and Russia.
In this case, the B-1B bomber had to "go to work sick."
In 2021, in order to carry out the task of deterrence against Russia, B-1B bombers crossed the ocean and landed in Norway.
In addition, the U.S. Air Force has also trumpeted that B-1B bombers with a large number of advanced long-range anti-ship missiles are enough to destroy the Chinese Navy.
However, the reality is that the B-1B bombers, which are forced to "go to work sick", have more safety problems.
So much so that the U.S. Air Force had to order the grounding of all B-1B bombers in 2021 to eliminate the hidden dangers of the fuel system.
In fact, not only the B-1B bomber, but also the other two major bombers of the US Air Force have their own troubles.
Third, the situation of the other two major bombers is also not optimistic
As we all know, the US Air Force is currently equipped with 3 main types of strategic bombers, in addition to the aforementioned B-1B, there are also B-52 and B-2.
Back in the 50s of the last century, the B-52 bomber entered service.
However, the Pentagon's plan is to extend the service of the B-52 bomber until the 60s of this century.
B-52 bomber
To this end, the US Air Force intends to modernize the B-52 bomber.
However, it is reported that the modernization project, which cost more than $48 billion, is facing a major challenge - a supply chain crisis.
Due to its age, most of the original suppliers of parts for the B-52 bomber went out of business or went bankrupt.
This means that many parts of the B-52 bomber may face the dilemma of running out of spare parts.
As soon as the B-52 bomber is damaged or aged, there is a risk that it will not be able to take off again due to the lack of the necessary spare parts.
At present, the US Air Force can only use the method of "tearing down the east wall and making up for the west wall" to ensure that as many B-52 bombers as possible can take off normally.
However, this method is tantamount to drinking water to quench your thirst. If this continues, there will probably be fewer and fewer B-52 bombers capable of carrying out missions, and they will not last until 2060.
And the B-2 stealth bomber has always been considered the backbone of the US military's air-based nuclear strike.
However, to everyone's surprise, the US Air Force announced that the B-2 bombers would be retired ahead of schedule.
In fact, the main reason why the US military wants to abandon the B-2 bomber is that the cost performance of the B-2 bomber is too low.
On the one hand, the price of a single B-2 bomber is as high as $2.4 billion. Moreover, the subsequent maintenance costs are also very high. According to statistics, the U.S. Air Force spends about $1 billion a year on this item.
On the other hand, with the continuous development of military science and technology, the stealth technology of the B-2 bomber is no longer as advanced as it used to be. In the face of the new generation of Chinese and Russian air defense systems, the advantages of the B-2 bomber are getting smaller and smaller.
B-2 stealth bomber
Moreover, the B-2 bomber also had problems such as difficulties in the supply of parts, aging of the airframe, and frequent accidents.
In this case, it is not surprising that the US military chose to abandon the B-2 bomber.
To make matters worse, the B-21 stealth bomber, which was originally planned to replace the B-2 bomber, not only delayed its service time, but also faced the risk of exceeding the cost standard.
From the above analysis, it is not difficult for us to see that there is a big problem in the current US Air Force, that is, there is a shortage of bombers, and the air-based deterrent force continues to weaken. Moreover, it has a tendency to continue to deteriorate.
If the US military does not hurry up and find a way to solve these problems, then the tragedy of the crash is very likely to continue to happen.
When the time comes, let alone deterring China and Russia, even preserving itself will be a problem.
It's funny to think about it, the United States has been preaching the superiority of bomber deterrence for so many years. In the end, the US military's own bombers went into trouble one after another, and they showed their appearance in front of the whole world.
And China, which is on guard, has built the H-6 series of fighters, which is called the fifth bomber in the world by the US media.
What is even more heart-wrenching is that, unlike the difficulties faced by the US military, the development of Chinese bombers is proceeding quite smoothly. At present, the H-6 series has derived many models, such as H-6K, H-6N, etc.
If this situation continues, it will be difficult for the US military to maintain its superiority in other areas.