Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic, variable-sweep-wing heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force, nicknamed 'the Bone.' It is one of three strategic bomber types the Air Force operates, alongside the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress, and it can carry up to 75,000 pounds of bombs.
President Jimmy Carter canceled the B-1A program on the 30th of June 1977, after Pentagon officials told him the AGM-86 cruise missile launched from existing B-52s could match the B-1's ability to penetrate Soviet airspace at lower cost. Carter called it 'one of the most difficult decisions that I've made since I've been in office.'
The B-1B entered service with Strategic Air Command as a nuclear bomber in 1986, after President Ronald Reagan restarted the program on the 2nd of October 1981. All 100 B-1Bs had been delivered by 1988, with the final aircraft handed over on the 2nd of May 1988.
The B-1B's nuclear mission was formally eliminated in 1994 under the START I treaty, and its arming and fuzing hardware was removed the following year. Further conversions under the New START treaty with Russia were completed in 2011, and Russian officials now inspect the aircraft every year to confirm compliance.
The B-1B first went to war during Operation Desert Fox over Iraq in December 1998 and Operation Allied Force over Kosovo in 1999. It has since flown in Afghanistan, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, and Iran, most recently striking Iranian targets during Operation Epic Fury in March 2026.
The Air Force announced in February 2021 that it would retire 17 B-1s, leaving 45 in service, with four kept in storage in a condition allowing their return. Many retired B-1s now sit in the Air Force's storage yard known as the Boneyard.