A deafening late take off of a B-1B Lancer from RAF Fairford. Video is a bit shaky but cool.
The following clip was filmed a few weeks ago outside the perimeter fence at RAF Fairford, UK, where two B-1B “Bone” bombers belonging to the 7th Bomb Wing, Dyess Air Base, Texas, were deployed.
The two Lancers along with a B-52 took part in Exercise Ample Strike 2016, a yearly Czech Republic-led exercise with 300 participants from 18 countries.
The video is not very good in quality, a bit shaky, but it gives a rough idea of what a (almost) head-on take-off of a B-1 looks like.
“The heat and exhaust flow blew me off my feet. Apparently developed a hydraulic fault on take-off so required more runway than usual for a safe lift off, hence why it is SO LOW,” says the author of the clip, Jonathan Grainge, in a comment to the video on Youtube.
On top is an interesting photo showing one “Bone”(from “B-One”) refueling at night from a KC-135 during an air strike on Sept. 27, as it ignites the afterburners to accelerate in bound to the subsequent waypoint along its route.
Supported by KC-135 tankers (also based at Al Udeid), the B-1 “Lancer” supersonic variable-sweep wing, strategic bombers have pounded ground targets in both Syria and Iraq.
Here’s an interesting video showing one “Bone”(from “B-One”) refueling at night from a KC-135 while enroute to the target area in Syria on Sept. 27, as seen through the NVG (Night Vision Googgles).
B-1B “Lancer” bombers belonging to the 7th Bomb Wing from Dyess Air Force Base, in Texas, are bombing ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria.
An unspecified number of B-1B bombers of the 7th Bomb Wing from Dyess AFB is currently operating from Al Udeid airbase, in Qatar. If you type the Qatari airbase name in Google Earth, you can spot at least 5 “Lancers” parked on the main apron, along with KC-135 tankers.
Image credit: Google Earth
Originally the “Bones” (as the plane are nicknamed by their pilots), supported by 300 airmen, were deployed to the region to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan as part of a standard 6-month rotation to the main U.S. Air Force base in the Persian Gulf.
Then, they were destined to the current air campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
More or less at the same time when their presence in the opening waves of air strikes in Syria was confirmed by officials at the Pentagon, a composite photo made with video stills, of a B-1B circling over Fallujah, 69 kilometers to the west of Baghdad, on Sept. 24, was posted on Arab forum: a reminder that there’s a war going on in Iraq too and that air strikes on ISIS not only involve F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets and F-15E aircraft, but also supersonic variable-sweep wing, jet-powered strategic bombers too.
On Jan. 21, Dyess Air Force Base, in Texas, saw the arrival of the first operational B-1B Lancer with the Integrated Battle Station upgrade which gave the “Bone” new screens and updated avionics in both the cockpit and battle stations.
The IBS is a package of three different upgrades that, in the words of Brig. Gen. Glen VanHerck, 7th Bomb Wing commander, who spoke at the ceremony held on Jan. 24 to celebrate the arrival of the first “new” plane, “will take [the fleet] to the next generation of long-range strike capability.”
The upgrade is aimed at increasing the situational awareness of the pilots and includes a Fully Integrated Data Link (FIDL), a Vertical Situation Display Upgrade (VSDU), and a Central Integrated System (CITS) upgrade.
Within the VSDU two unsupportable, monochrome pilot and co-pilot displays were replaced by four multifunctional color displays, that provide the pilots more situational awareness data, in a user-friendly format.
The FIDL is a modern data link that allows the B-1 to interconnect and communicate in real-time, with other planes, ground stations, allied units.
The CITS is an upgrade of the old LED display computers used by ground maintainers to identify and troubleshoot system failures.
“Integration into the data link environment and the increased maintainability, as well as the new computers and displays are capable of showing a better picture of the battlespace with more advanced graphics will enable the B-1 to be a force for decades to come,” said Maj. Michael Jungquist, 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron software Block 16 project officer for the Dyess Air Force Base press release.
The IBS upgraded B-1 bombers will not only be based at Dyess: Ellsworth AFB is also scheduled to receive the upgraded aircraft within the upgrade program, that will be completed by 2019.
