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Boeing has plans to turn the B-1B into a gun ship, but is it a flight of fancy?

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On May 8th of this year, Boeing was granted a patent that shows a number of potential cannon configurations for legendary supersonic bomber, the B-1B Lancer. The patent’s details range from conformal pods that house turrets to a suspension system that would allow massive cannons to be lowered from the bomber’s payload doors. While the turret placement is different, and even the cannons themselves (ranging from 25mm to 40mm in size), the overall concept is the same: to arm America’s outgoing supersonic bomber with a similar type of firepower already seen in C-130 gunships.

At first glance, the idea seems almost like science fiction. Despite dating back to the 1970s, the B-1B Lancer is America’s only long distance, heavy payload bomber capable of breaching the supersonic barrier and sustaining speeds in excess of Mach 1. It’s folding wings, reminiscent of the F-14 Tomcat of Top Gun fame, may be the only aspect of the legendary “Bone” that betrays its dated origins. There’s no question that the idea of a supersonic gunship screaming across the sky at Mach 1.2 before expanding its wings, reducing its flight speed and raining hate down on enemy positions in a battlefield of the future sounds exciting but just how practical would such a transition be?

First, the pros.

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  • Avatar
    Carl C

    I see two more advantages to having an AB-1 gun ship. 1) It will be able to bring weapons to bare in less than half the time in support of ground troops greatly decreasing troop losses and 2) it will have significantly greater and more sustainable fire power both of which will be a great asset in fighting someone like China or Russia.

  • Avatar
    Steve S

    I’ve been testing, operating and designing automated modular systems for 34 years, first for the military and more recently for the medical industry. I will respectively disagree with you and stand by my comments.

  • Avatar
    James Walper

    Automated modular systems shouldn’t cost that much money. Open the door, let it do its programmed job.

  • Avatar
    Erik J

    To work with the F-22 I know they had developed a B-1R Concept to use it as a missile truck to ripple fire 20 some odd AIM-120’s at targets designated by the stealth fighter, but they concept never seemed to move past the thought. There was an uphill battle with the two-way data link that was the core of those systems though.

  • Avatar
    Steve S

    I spent 6 years testing the B1B at Edwards AFB as a flight test engineer so I’m very familiar with the aircraft and it’s capabilities. Besides the enormous expense of hanging guns on the plane and qualifying them an entire fire control system and updated crew stations (DSO and OSO) would have to be developed, tested, and fielded. Just don’t see it happening unless someone wants to throw three or four years and some cubic $$ at it. Hard to envision the specific mission scenario that makes it worth it.