Image source: topwar.ru
The United States has transferred a pair of B-1B Lancer strategic bombers to India to participate in the Aero India 2023 International Air Show held in Bangalore. American planes were put up on the territory of the Yelakhanka airbase.
Two B-1B Lancer strategists arrived in India on Tuesday, having flown from an air base in South Dakota, making an intermediate stop on the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. This is the second participation of the B-1B Lancer in the Indian air show, they were previously shown in 2021. The plane is not put up for showing to potential buyers, these bombers are not for sale, but for an "exciting spectacle" to show the full power of the US Air Force. In addition to the B-1B Lancer, the United States demonstrates F-35, F-16 and F-18 fighter jets as part of the airshow.
- TASS quotes the statement of the US Embassy in New Delhi.
The US Air Force is slowly decommissioning B-1B Lancer strategic bombers, sending them to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Repair Group (AMARG) site in Arizona, better known as the "aircraft cemetery". The US Air Force plans to get rid of these aircraft completely by 2036. The reason for the write-off is called wear and tear, the development of airworthiness and too expensive maintenance and repair.
The B-1 Lancer heavy bomber (Rockwell International B-1 Lancer — Ulan) is a multi—mode bomber created as a replacement for the Boeing B-52 aircraft under the AMSA program since 1965, and the world's first combat aircraft in whose design elements of Stealth technology were widely implemented. It has been in service with the US Air Force since July 27, 1985. In the early 1990s, the conversion of B-1 aircraft to equip them with conventional weapons began. The final version of the bomber (B-1B) implements the concept of a low-altitude air defense breakthrough by flying at ultra-low altitudes with a terrain envelope.
