Rockwell B-1 Lancer

• 1. Introduction

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  American aircrews nicknamed the Rockwell B-1 Lancer 'the Bone.' The name traces back to an early newspaper article that spelled it 'B-ONE' and left out the hyphen. The Lancer is a supersonic, variable-sweep-wing heavy bomber. It is one of three strategic bomber types the U.S. Air Force still operates, alongside the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress. It can carry as much as 75,000 pounds of bombs. That description hides a stranger story. A U.S. president tried to kill this bomber before it ever reached a squadron. A later president brought it back under a new name. It was built to carry nuclear weapons and today carries none at all. What almost ended the program before it began, and why did Washington choose to build the same design twice?

• 2. Flying Under The Radar

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  In 1955, the USAF issued requirements for a new bomber. It needed the payload and range of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and the Mach 2 speed of the Convair B-58 Hustler. In December 1957, the USAF selected North American Aviation's B-70 Valkyrie for the role. The six-engine bomber could cruise at Mach 3 at an altitude of 70,000 feet. Soviet interceptor aircraft, the only effective anti-bomber weapon of that era, could not catch the high-flying Lockheed U-2. The Valkyrie was expected to fly at similar altitudes but far higher speeds, passing enemy fighters by.

  By the late 1950s, surface-to-air missiles could threaten aircraft flying at high altitude. The 1960 downing of pilot Gary Powers' U-2 demonstrated the danger clearly. Strategic Air Command had already begun shifting its bombers toward low-level penetration even before that incident. Flying low let bombers use terrain masking, breaking the line of sight between radar and aircraft with hills and valleys. Ground clutter also limited how low a radar could see, so distant low-flying bombers stayed under its detection angle. The same clutter made it hard for higher-flying interceptors to pick out low aircraft on their own radar. That gap became known as a lack of look-down or shoot-down capability.

  The switch to low-altitude flight hurt the B-70, a design tuned for high-altitude performance. Higher drag at low level limited it to subsonic speed and cut its range far below the B-52's. President John F. Kennedy canceled the B-70 bomber program in 1961. The two XB-70 prototypes were reassigned to a supersonic research program instead.

  The B-52's flexibility let it outlast the bomber meant to replace it. Its huge fuel load let it fly low for longer, and its size allowed room for better jamming and deception systems. During the Vietnam War, 'big belly' modifications raised the B-52's total bomb load to 60,000 pounds. That turned it into a tactical aircraft for strikes on ground troops as well as strategic targets. The B-70's much smaller bomb bay made it far less useful for that kind of mission.

  The supersonic F-111 fighter-bomber, using variable-sweep wings for tactical missions, became the first of a new class of design called penetrators. A string of studies followed, searching for a strategic-range counterpart. The 1961 Subsonic Low-Altitude Bomber study produced a design that looked more like an airliner than a bomber, with a swept wing and T-tail. The following Extended Range Strike Aircraft study added a variable-sweep wing. It called for a 10,000 pound payload and a 10,070 mile range, including 2,900 miles flown at low altitude. In August 1963, the Low-Altitude Manned Penetrator design called for a 20,000 pound bomb load and a range of 8,230 miles.

  The October 1963 Advanced Manned Precision Strike System study brought Boeing, General Dynamics, and North American into industry-wide design work. By mid-1964, the USAF revised its requirements and renamed the project the Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft. The new name added a demand for high-speed, high-altitude capability similar to the F-111. North American Rockwell engineers joked that the new name actually stood for 'America's Most Studied Aircraft.' That joke captured just how many years the concept had spent under review before a single prototype existed.

• 3. Killed By A President

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  Defense Secretary Robert McNamara preferred intercontinental ballistic missiles over bombers for the nuclear deterrent force. The Air Force wanted to keep bombers as part of a nuclear triad alongside ICBMs and submarine-launched missiles. It argued that bombers could attack hardened targets and sit ready in safe loitering areas. But new ICBMs like the Minuteman III were gaining the accuracy needed to hit precise targets on their own. McNamara limited the AMSA program to studies and component work starting in 1964. IBM and Autonetics won AMSA avionics study contracts in 1968, but McNamara still favored upgrading the B-52 fleet and adding roughly 300 FB-111s instead. He vetoed funding for AMSA aircraft development again that year.

  President Richard Nixon revived the program after taking office, in keeping with his administration's flexible response strategy. His defense secretary, Melvin Laird, reduced the planned number of FB-111s and pushed to accelerate the AMSA design studies. In April 1969, the program was officially renamed the B-1A, the first entry in a bomber designation series created in 1962. The Air Force requested proposals that November, and Boeing, General Dynamics, and North American Rockwell all submitted bids in January 1970. North American Rockwell won the development contract that June. The original plan called for two test airframes, five flyable aircraft, and 40 engines. That was cut in 1971 to one ground and three flight test aircraft. The company renamed itself Rockwell International in 1973 and named its aircraft division North American Aircraft Operations. A fourth prototype, built to production standards, was ordered in the fiscal year 1976 budget. Plans called for 240 B-1As with service beginning in 1979.

  Rockwell's design borrowed features from both the F-111 and the XB-70. A crew escape capsule could eject as a single unit to improve survival odds if the crew had to abandon the aircraft at high speed. Large variable-sweep wings gave the aircraft more lift for takeoff and less drag during a high-speed dash. That let it use a wider range of airfields than the B-52. The plan called for the aircraft to cross Soviet defenses at supersonic speed before slowing down over the country's less-defended interior. Variable exhaust nozzles and intake ramps were needed to hit Mach 2 at high altitude. Engineers first expected a Mach 1.2 low-altitude requirement, which meant using titanium in critical structural areas. That requirement was later lowered to Mach 0.85, cutting the amount of titanium needed and reducing cost. Small vibration-damping vanes near the nose smoothed out the bumpy low-altitude ride. The first three B-1As carried a shared escape capsule; the fourth used conventional ejection seats for each crew member instead.

  The B-1A mockup review in late October 1971 produced 297 requests for design changes. The first B-1A prototype, serial number 74-0158, flew for the first time on the 23rd of December 1974. Inflation drove costs up through the program: the estimated unit cost was $40 million in 1970 and had climbed to $70 million by 1975.

  In 1976, Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko defected to Japan with his MiG-25 fighter. During debriefing, he described a new 'super-Foxbat' with look-down radar capable of tracking cruise missiles and low-flying bombers alike. That threat made the B-1, armed similarly to the B-52, look no more likely to survive Soviet airspace. Senator William Proxmire publicly derided the program as an outlandishly expensive dinosaur. During the 1976 campaign, Jimmy Carter made the bomber a campaign issue. 'The B-1 bomber is an example of a proposed system which should not be funded and would be wasteful of taxpayers' dollars,' he said.

  Carter ordered a review of the program after taking office in 1977. Cost estimates had risen past $100 million per aircraft over a projected 20-year lifetime. He had also been briefed on stealth aircraft research that had begun in 1975. 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. With a range of 1,500 miles, the missile could launch from well outside Soviet defenses. It could then slip in at low altitude with a smaller radar signature. A small number of B-52s could launch hundreds of these missiles at once, saturating any defense. Upgrading the B-52 fleet and building the missile would cost at least 20 percent less than the planned 244 B-1As.

  On the 30th of June 1977, Carter announced the B-1A's cancellation in favor of ICBMs, submarine-launched missiles, and a modernized B-52 fleet armed with cruise missiles. He called it 'one of the most difficult decisions that I've made since I've been in office.' The stealth research stayed secret, but in early 1978 Carter authorized the Advanced Technology Bomber project that eventually produced the B-2 Spirit.

  The Department of Defense was reportedly surprised by the cancellation, having expected an order reduced to around 150 aircraft. Congressman Robert Dornan claimed, 'They're breaking out the vodka and caviar in Moscow.' The Soviets, however, appeared more worried about the cruise missiles than about losing the B-1. The Soviet news agency TASS said the decision 'seriously complicated efforts for the limitation of the strategic arms race.' NATO commander Alexander Haig called the cruise missile an 'attractive alternative' to the bomber. French General Georges Buis put it more bluntly: 'The B-1 is a formidable weapon, but not terribly useful. For the price of one bomber, you can have 200 cruise missiles.'

  The four B-1A prototypes did not stop flying after the cancellation. Flight tests continued into April 1981, reaching 70 flights and 378 hours in total. The second B-1A reached a top speed of Mach 2.22, while the YF101 engines logged almost 7,600 hours of testing. Those aircraft kept flying missions while Washington waited for a decision no one had yet made.

• 4. Reagan's Interim Bomber

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  Through the late 1970s, Soviet-backed forces asserted themselves in new arenas. These included Cuban proxies in the Angolan Civil War, which began in 1975, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. American strategy up to that point had focused narrowly on containing Communism and preparing for a war in Europe. The Pentagon responded by accelerating its Rapid Deployment Forces concept, though it struggled with airlift and sealift shortfalls. During the 1980 campaign, Ronald Reagan cited the B-1's cancellation as proof that Carter was weak on defense. He kept using that theme into the 1980s. Carter's defense secretary, Harold Brown, had already announced the stealth bomber project by then, seeming to confirm it as the real reason for the cancellation.

  On taking office, Reagan faced the same choice as his predecessor: keep flying the aging B-52 fleet, or field a new bomber before the Advanced Technology Bomber was ready. Studies suggested the B-52 and cruise missile combination would remain credible only until 1985. Analysts expected 75 percent of that force to survive and strike its targets. After 1985, new Soviet weapons including the SA-10 missile and the MiG-31 interceptor were expected to make the B-52 increasingly vulnerable. A 1981 study called the Long-Range Combat Aircraft project weighed the B-1, the F-111, and the stealth bomber as options, with an emphasis on multi-role capability. On the 2nd of October 1981, Reagan announced that the Air Force would order 100 new B-1s to fill that role, while also continuing to develop the stealth bomber.

  In January 1982, the Air Force awarded Rockwell two contracts worth a combined $2.2 billion to develop and build the 100 new bombers. The redesigned B-1B traded speed for stealth. Simpler fixed intake ramps replaced the B-1A's variable-aspect ramps, shrinking its radar signature at the cost of top speed. Low-altitude speed rose from about Mach 0.85 to Mach 0.92, while the B-1B's maximum altitude speed fell to Mach 1.25. Maximum takeoff weight grew to 477,000 pounds from the B-1A's 395,000 pounds, to allow a full internal fuel load along with external weapons. Rockwell engineers reinforced critical structural areas and lightened others to keep the added empty weight small. To counter the new MiG-31 and its Zaslon radar, the electronic warfare suite was significantly upgraded.

  Opposition in Congress stayed widespread. Critics argued the B-52, fitted with similar electronics, could dodge interception just as well, since the B-1's speed advantage had nearly disappeared. Some warned the 'interim' aircraft would become obsolete within a decade of the stealth bomber's arrival. Supporters countered that the B-1's large conventional payload and short-field takeoff performance justified the cost. Production subcontracts spread across many congressional districts, which only made the aircraft more popular on Capitol Hill.

  The first B-1A, disassembled, went to radar testing at the Rome Air Development Center on the former Griffiss Air Force Base in New York. Two other B-1A airframes were modified with B-1B systems for testing. The first B-1B began flight testing in March 1983. The first production B-1B rolled out on the 4th of September 1984 and flew for the first time on the 18th of October 1984. The 100th and final B-1B was delivered on the 2nd of May 1988, though the Air Force had already determined by then that the aircraft remained vulnerable to Soviet air defenses.

  In 1996, Rockwell International sold most of its space and defense operations to Boeing. Boeing remains the aircraft's primary contractor as of 2024. The airframe Rockwell had designed to slip past Soviet radar was about to be tested against every other threat a modern bomber can face.

• 5. Built To Survive

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  The B-1 uses a blended wing body with four turbofan engines, triangular ride-control fins, and a cruciform tail. Its variable-sweep wings can move from 15 degrees to 67.5 degrees. Forward-swept settings are used for takeoff, landing, and efficient high-altitude cruise. Aft-swept settings come into play for high subsonic and supersonic flight. That sweeping wing, combined with a strong thrust-to-weight ratio, lets the bomber use shorter runways than earlier aircraft.

  The aircraft's length created a flexing problem from air turbulence at low altitude. Rockwell added small triangular vanes near the nose to counter it. The Structural Mode Control System moves those vanes, along with the lower rudder, to smooth out the ride.

  Unlike the B-1A, the B-1B cannot exceed Mach 1.25, roughly 825 miles per hour at altitude. Its low-level speed, though, rose to Mach 0.92, or about 700 miles per hour. Serpentine S-duct air intakes and fixed intake ramps helped shrink the B-1B's radar signature, at the cost of the top speed the B-1A once had. Vanes inside those ducts also deflect and shield radar returns from the engine's reflective compressor blades.

  The B-1A's engine was modified into the GE F101-102 for the B-1B, with a focus on durability and efficiency. That engine's core also powers the GE F110, used in the F-14 Tomcat and later versions of the F-16 Fighting Falcon. It forms the basis of the non-afterburning GE F118, used in the B-2 Spirit and the U-2S, and the F101 core also underlies the civilian CFM56 engine. The nose-gear door doubles as a control point for ground crews to start the auxiliary power unit quickly during a scramble.

  The B-1's main computer, an IBM AP-101, also flew aboard the Space Shuttle orbiter and the B-52, programmed in the JOVIAL language. Its offensive avionics include the Westinghouse AN/APQ-164 radar, an electronically steered set with a downward-fixed antenna for reduced observability. That radar offers synthetic aperture imaging, ground moving-target indication, and terrain-following modes, backed by Doppler navigation and an inertial navigation suite. The Block D upgrade added a GPS receiver in 1995.

  Defensive systems include the Eaton AN/ALQ-161A radar warning and jamming system, with antenna sets at the base of each wing and in the tail radome. That tail radome also houses the AN/ALQ-153 missile approach warning radar. Eight AN/ALE-49 flare dispensers behind the canopy, managed by the AN/ASQ-184 system, each carry 12 MJU-23A/B flares. Weighing more than 3.3 pounds apiece, the MJU-23A/B ranks among the largest infrared countermeasure flares in the world. The B-1 can also carry the ALE-50 towed decoy system.

  Though not a true stealth aircraft, the B-1's structure, serpentine intakes, and radar-absorbent material give it a radar cross-section about one-fiftieth that of a similarly sized B-52. That works out to roughly 26 square feet, comparable to a small fighter jet.

  The B-1 holds 61 FAI world records for speed, payload, distance, and time-to-climb across different weight classes. In November 1993, three B-1Bs set a long-distance record demonstrating the aircraft's ability to strike anywhere in the world and return without stopping. The National Aeronautic Association named it one of the ten most memorable record flights of 1994. Those records said nothing about the weapons the airframe would eventually carry.

• 6. Arming The Bone

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  The Conventional Mission Upgrade Program added a MIL-STD-1760 smart-weapons interface, opening the door to precision-guided conventional weapons. Block A covered the standard B-1B, limited to non-precision gravity bombs. Block B added an improved synthetic aperture radar and upgrades to the defensive countermeasures system, fielded in 1995. Block C brought an 'enhanced capability' to carry up to 30 cluster bomb units per sortie, with modifications to 50 bomb racks. Block D added a 'near precision capability' through better weapons and targeting systems, plus secure communications. That upgrade also introduced the Joint Direct Attack Munition, the ALE-50 towed decoy system, and anti-jam radios. Block E upgraded the avionics computers and added the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser, the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon, and the AGM-158 JASSM. It finished in September 2006. Block F, meant to improve electronic countermeasures and jamming, was canceled in December 2002 over cost overruns and delays.

  In 2007, the Sniper XR targeting pod was integrated onto the B-1 fleet, mounted near the forward bomb bay. It was fielded in the summer of 2008, with the Small Diameter Bomb planned as a future addition to the aircraft's arsenal.

  A proposed B-1R upgrade in 2004 would have re-engined existing B-1Bs with Pratt & Whitney F119 engines borrowed from the F-22 Raptor. That version, its name standing for 'regional,' would have restored a Mach 2.2 top speed, though with 20 percent less range. New radars, air-to-air missiles, and modified hardpoints for multiple conventional weapons rounded out the concept.

  The Air Force began the Integrated Battle Station modification in 2012, folding three separate upgrades into one program. The Fully Integrated Data Link let systems share data electronically instead of by hand. The Vertical Situational Display Unit replaced older flight instruments with multifunction color displays, adding a second screen for threat evasion and targeting. The Central Integrated Test System let crews monitor more than 9,000 aircraft parameters. Other changes replaced the aircraft's spinning-mass gyroscopes with ring laser gyroscopic navigation and a GPS antenna. The upgrade also swapped the APQ-164 radar for the Scalable Agile Beam Radar and added a new attitude indicator. The whole Integrated Battle Station program finished in 2020.

  In August 2019, the Air Force revealed a modification using a moveable forward bulkhead to expand the intermediate weapons bay from 180 to 269 inches. The change also uses a new rotary launcher and six external hardpoints that had been kept idle to comply with the New START Treaty. Together, they would raise the B-1's weapon load from 24 to 40. The configuration also allows heavier weapons in the 5,000 pound range, including the planned AGM-183 hypersonic missile. A future hypersonic weapon called HAWC could push that total as high as 31, though the Air Force has not said whether it will join the fleet.

• 7. From Nuclear Watch To War Zone

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  The second B-1B built, named 'The Star of Abilene,' became the first delivered to Strategic Air Command, in June 1985. The bomber reached initial operational capability on the 1st of October 1986 and went on nuclear alert status. It received the official name 'Lancer' on the 15th of March 1990.

  In late 1990, engine fires grounded two Lancers, a problem traced to first-stage fan failures. The fleet was placed on 'limited alert,' grounded unless a nuclear war broke out, before returning to duty on the 6th of February 1991. By then the B-1 had a fledgling conventional capability, with forty aircraft able to drop the 500 pound Mk-82 general-purpose bomb, mostly from low altitude. Despite that clearance, the lingering engine problems kept the B-1 out of Operation Desert Storm. The bomber instead stood ready for strategic nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union, while the B-52 flew the conventional missions of the Gulf War.

  Designed strictly for nuclear war, the B-1 was slow to develop a conventional role. The Soviet Union's collapse raised doubts about that nuclear mission. President George H. W. Bush ordered a $3 billion conventional refit in response.

  On the 26th of April 1991, ten B-1Bs at McConnell Air Force Base narrowly avoided the Andover tornado that struck the base directly. Two of those bombers were carrying nuclear warheads at the time.

  After Strategic Air Command was inactivated and Air Combat Command took over in 1992, the B-1 built out a stronger conventional role, including a new U.S. Air Force Weapons School B-1 Division. In 1994, two more B-1 bomb wings formed in the Air National Guard, as fighter units in Kansas and Georgia converted to the aircraft. By decade's end, upgrades had given the bomber a full mix of guided and unguided munitions.

  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 modified hardpoints to block nuclear weapon pylons, stripped the wiring bundles used to arm nuclear weapons, and destroyed the pylons outright. That process finished in 2011, and Russian officials now inspect the aircraft every year to confirm compliance.

  The B-1 first went to war during Operation Desert Fox over Iraq in December 1998, dropping unguided general-purpose bombs. It flew again during Operation Allied Force over Kosovo in 1999, then in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The aircraft's signature weapon in these campaigns was the 2,000 pound GBU-31 JDAM. In the first six months of Enduring Freedom, eight B-1s dropped almost 40 percent of all aerial ordnance used, including roughly 3,900 JDAMs. On the 7th of April 2003, JDAMs from a B-1 targeted an unsuccessful strike meant to kill Saddam Hussein and his two sons. By the end of Enduring Freedom, the B-1's mission-capable rate had risen to 79 percent.

  Of the 100 B-1Bs originally built, 93 remained by 2000 after losses in accidents. In June 2001, a Pentagon proposal to store one-third of the fleet drew opposition from Air National Guard officers and members of Congress, who drafted an amendment to block the cuts. In 2003, the Air Force removed B-1Bs from its two Air National Guard bomb wings and retired 33 aircraft to concentrate its budget. A 2004 appropriations bill returned seven mothballed bombers to service, raising the fleet to 67 aircraft.

  On the 14th of July 2007, the Associated Press reported a growing U.S. presence in Iraq that included reintroduced B-1Bs. Starting in 2008, the bombers flew an 'armed overwatch' role over Iraq and Afghanistan, loitering for surveillance while ready to drop guided bombs for ground troops.

  On the 19th of March 2008, a B-1B from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas became the first USAF aircraft to fly supersonic on a synthetic fuel blend, mixed half and half with petroleum fuel over Texas and New Mexico. On the 4th of August 2008, a B-1B flew the type's first combat sortie with the Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod, dropping a GBU-38 guided bomb on enemy forces in Afghanistan.

  In March 2011, B-1Bs from Ellsworth Air Force Base struck undisclosed targets in Libya during Operation Odyssey Dawn.

  In August 2012, the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron returned from a six-month tour in Afghanistan after flying 770 sorties, the most of any B-1B squadron on a single deployment. The squadron logged 9,500 hours airborne, keeping a bomber over the country at all times. It also covered a quarter of all combat sorties flown there during that stretch.

  On the 4th of September 2013, a B-1B took part in a maritime evaluation exercise, dropping laser-guided GBU-54 bombs alongside JDAMs and Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles to test its ability to hit small watercraft.

  Beginning in 2014, the B-1 flew against Islamic State forces in the Syrian Civil War. Between August 2014 and January 2015, it covered eight percent of USAF sorties in Operation Inherent Resolve. During the Battle of Kobane, B-1s from the 9th Bomb Squadron dropped 660 bombs over five months in support of Kurdish forces. That amounted to about a third of all bombs used in the operation during that stretch, killing roughly 1,000 fighters. The squadron went 'Winchester,' releasing every weapon aboard, 31 times during its six-month deployment, and dropped more than 2,000 JDAMs in total. Separately, B-1s from the 28th Bomb Wing flew 490 sorties and dropped 3,800 munitions on 3,700 targets during their own six-month deployment.

  As part of an April 2015 reorganization, every B-1 moved from Air Combat Command to Global Strike Command that October.

  On the 8th of July 2017, the USAF flew two B-1s near the North Korean border as a show of force, days after North Korea tested an ICBM capable of reaching Alaska.

  On the 14th of April 2018, B-1s launched 19 JASSM missiles as part of strikes on Damascus and Homs in Syria.

  In February 2021, the Air Force announced it would retire 17 B-1s, leaving 45 in service. Four of those retired aircraft would be kept in a condition allowing their return. That March, B-1s deployed to Norway's Ørland Main Air Station for the first time, training alongside Norwegian and Swedish ground controllers. One aircraft completed the type's first landing inside Norway's Arctic Circle during a refueling stop at Bodø Main Air Station. It also integrated with four Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighters during the deployment.

  On the 2nd of February 2024, the U.S. sent two B-1Bs to strike 85 targets across seven locations in Iraq and Syria, in response to a drone attack that killed three American troops in Jordan.

  In January 2026, B-1Bs joined U.S. strikes in Venezuela alongside F-35s, F-22s, F/A-18s, and EA-18s. The operation ended with the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. The following March, B-1Bs flew Operation Epic Fury as part of the Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran. A U.S. Central Command post on the 2nd of March 2026 said the bombers had struck 'deep inside Iran to degrade Iranian ballistic missile capabilities.' President Donald Trump added, 'we're going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground.'

• 8. Living On Borrowed Time

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  The Aviation Safety Network lists 15 accidents between 1984 and 2024, in which 11 B-1s were lost and 12 crew members were killed. An April 2022 maintenance fire damaged another aircraft without destroying it. Many retired B-1s now sit in the Air Force's storage yard known as the Boneyard.

  On the 29th of August 1984, the B-1A prototype with serial number 74-0159 lost control during a test flight over the Mojave Desert. A fuel transfer error had shifted its center of gravity aft of the limit. Two crew members survived, but a Rockwell test pilot was killed.

  On the 28th of September 1987, a B-1B from Dyess Air Force Base crashed near La Junta, Colorado, during a low-level training flight, the only B-1B crash to carry six crew members. Investigators believed a bird strike had severed fuel and hydraulic lines on one side of the aircraft. Two crew in jump seats and one of four in ejection seats died; the rest ejected safely. The fleet was later modified to better protect those supply lines.

  In October 1990, a B-1B from McConnell Air Force Base suffered a catastrophic engine failure over eastern Colorado, its blades cutting through the mounts until the engine detached. That December, a second B-1B from Dyess Air Force Base lost an engine to a similar jolt. Together, the two incidents grounded B-1Bs not on nuclear alert for more than 50 days. Investigators traced the cause to first-stage fan problems and fitted modified engines fleet-wide.

  On the 30th of November 1992, a B-1B crashed 300 feet below a ridgeline 36 miles south-southwest of Van Horn, Texas, during a night sortie, killing all four crew. On the 19th of September 1997, another B-1B crashed near Alzada, Montana, after an excessive sink rate during a defensive maneuver, again killing all four crew.

  On the 12th of December 2001, a B-1B supporting Operation Enduring Freedom crashed into the Indian Ocean roughly 30 miles north of Diego Garcia. All four crew ejected safely and were rescued after two hours in a warm, calm sea. Pilot Capt. William Steele said the aircraft had not been hit by hostile fire but suffered 'multiple malfunctions' that made it impossible to handle.

  In September 2005, a B-1B from Ellsworth Air Force Base caught fire while leaving the runway at Andersen Air Force Base, after a brake failure let hydraulic fluid leak onto hot brakes. The fire damaged its right wing, nacelle, and landing gear. Repairs, drawing parts from retired B-1Bs at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, took three years, and the aircraft returned to flight in 2008.

  On the 19th of August 2013, a B-1B crashed near Broadus, Montana, after a fuel leak and explosion damaged a wing during a wing-sweep maneuver; all four crew ejected safely. On the 1st of May 2018, another B-1B made an emergency landing at Midland International Air and Space Port in Texas. The landing followed a mid-air fire in its number four engine. Its crew halted the ejection sequence when one seat failed to leave the aircraft. That plane was retired on the 10th of April 2021 and repurposed for battle-damage repair training at Tinker Air Force Base.

  On the 20th of April 2022, a maintenance fire damaged a B-1B of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base. Falling debris injured an airman, and the damage was estimated at $14.944 million. On the 4th of January 2024, a B-1B crashed while attempting to land at Ellsworth Air Force Base in poor visibility and freezing temperatures. All four crew ejected safely, but the loss was valued at $456,248,485.

  Keeping the fleet flying carries a steep price. A single flight hour requires 48.4 hours of repair work. A 12-hour mission cost about $720,000 in fuel, repairs, and other needs as of 2010. That works out to $63,000 per flight hour, cheaper than the B-52's $72,000 or the B-2's $135,000.

  In June 2010, senior USAF officials met to weigh retiring the entire fleet over budget pressures. The Pentagon instead plans to replace the B-1 with the B-21 Raider after 2025. With continued upgrades, the Air Force may keep flying the B-1 until roughly 2038. One assessment called its long range 'particularly well-suited to the vast distances and unique challenges of the Pacific region.' That capability fits the push toward the Pacific under President Obama's 'Pivot to East Asia.'