by Clayton Griffin

Created on: May 08, 2008   Last Updated: September 09, 2008

The impact modern strategic bombers have had on national defense is very impressive. A primary example of what strategic bombers were created for is the air campaign at the beginning of Operation Desert Storm. The United States launched over 100,000 airborne combat missions and dropped over 88,500 tons of bombs. The result was what the Air Force had planned for with its strategic bombers; the vast majority of the Iraqi military was broken and defeated before a single American soldier set foot in the country.

Later, due to the unique ability of the B-1 Lancer the United States Department of Defense proved their ability to strike anywhere in the world within 24 hours. This ability was demonstrated in Operation Desert Fox as B-1 Lancers were uploaded with munitions at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, flown to Iraq and bombed their targets before landing at their final destination. This particular bomber has something that sets it apart from any other bomber in the fleet. It is supersonic. The newest bombers only go about 400 to 500 miles per hour the B-1 can go 950 MPH (mach 1.25). I am sure the mere sound of a 326,000 pound aircraft breaking the sound barrier is quite unnerving to the enemy.

The biggest advantage the modern strategic bombers give the United States is "shock and awe" or "rapid dominance". Shock and Awe is a military doctrine. The idea is to use rapid overwhelming force in order to break the enemies will to fight. At the beginning of Iraqi Freedom, Shock and Awe was used to overwhelm Iraqi forces. Over 1700 sorties were flown in the first day of Operation Iraqi Freedom, compared to only about 1000 on the opening day of Desert Storm. It took about two weeks for American forces to capture Baghdad after the beginning of the Shock and Awe strategy, which is pretty impressive considering at the time Iraq had one of the largest armies in the world, consisting of 300,000 troops divided into 11 infantry divisions, 3 armored divisions and 3 mechanized divisions.

Current military doctrine is designed around the abilities of strategic bombers as shown in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Desert Storm. The United States military must use the advantage given to it by its fleet of advanced bombers not only to secure the nation but to soften targets before our troops march in. The role of modern strategic bombers in national defense is often misunderstood and usually under appreciated.

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