Picking the Bone: The B-1 Bomber as a Platform for Innovation

Abstract

In the early 1990s, the United States Air Force envisioned the need to change the mission and technological capabilities of its strategic nuclear bomber, the B-1B. The result was transformational. This study uses Stephen P. Rosens theoretical model of military innovation to explain how the B-1 weapon system, one of the United States long-range bombers, transformed into an effective weapon system for irregular war within the context of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). The B-1s transformation was organizational, cultural, and technological. As a result, a weapon system designed as a nuclear bomber changed into an effective conventional platform and then again into a platform successful in supporting irregular warfare. The study provides a contemporary case study of military innovation tested against the theory of Rosens intra-service military innovation model. It intends to better understand and document what enabled and what inhibited the transformation of the B-1 weapon system during the relative peacetime environment of the 1990s and during the wartime setting after 2001.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2010
Accession Number
AD1019194

Entities

People

  • Jonathan Creer

Organizations

  • Air University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Counter WMD
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Force
  • Aircraft Industry
  • Airframes
  • Combat Areas
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Employment
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Precision-Guided Munitions
  • Satellite Guided Weapons
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Treaties
  • Warfare
  • Warning Systems
  • Weapons Effects

Readers

  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Missile Defense Systems.