Strategic Bomber - The Cold War and Its Aftermath

The Cold War and Its Aftermath

During the Cold War, the United States and United Kingdom on one side and the Soviet Union on the other kept strategic bombers ready to take off on short notice as part of the deterrent strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). Most strategic bombers of the two superpowers were designed to deliver nuclear weapons. For a time, some squadrons of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers were kept in the air around the clock, orbiting some distance away from their fail-safe points near the Soviet border.

The Royal Air Force's British-produced "V bombers" were designed and designated to be able to deliver British-made nuclear bombs to targets in European Russia. These bombers could have been able to reach and destroy cities like Kiev or Moscow before American strategic bombers.

The People's Republic of China produced an unlicensed version of Tupolev Tu-16 named Xian H-6, and the Soviet Union produced hundreds of unlicensed units of the American B-29 Superfortress, which the Soviet Air Force called the Tupolev Tu-4.

During the 1970s France produced its Dassault Mirage IV nuclear-armed bomber for the French Air Force as a part of its independent nuclear strike force: the Force de Frappe utilizing French-made bombers and IRBMs to deliver French-made nuclear bombs. These served in the bomber role through 1996, in reconnaissance through 2005. The French Government appears to have decided to move all of its strategic armaments to a squadron of four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, with 16 IRBM tubes apiece.

More recent strategic bombers such as the Rockwell International B-1B Lancer bomber, the Tupolev Tu-160, and the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit bomber incorporate various levels of stealth technology in their designs in an effort to avoid detection, especially by radar networks.

Non-stealth strategic bombers, e.g., the venerable B-52 (last produced in 1962) or the equally venerable Tupolev Tu-95 are still relevant through their carrying of air-launched cruise missiles and other "stand-off" weapons like the JASSM and the JDAM.

Indeed, it is likely that the USAF's B-52 fleet will, with continual upgrades, outlive its squadrons of B-1Bs. However, the USAF has recently launched a program to study the production of a new strategic bomber to complement the current fleet. It is likely that this bomber would also serve as a replacement for both the B-52 and B-1.

In the case of the Russian Air Force, new Tu-160 strategic bombers are expected to be delivered on a regular basis over the course of the next 10 to 20 years. In addition the current Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers will be periodically updated, as was seen during the 1990s with the Tu-22M bombers.

During the Cold War, strategic bombers were primarily armed with nuclear weapons. However, since the end of the Cold War, bombers originally intended for strategic use have been exclusively employed using non-nuclear, high explosive weapons. During Operation Desert Storm, the military action in Afghanistan, and the Invasion of Iraq in 2003, American B-52s and B-1s were employed in mostly tactical roles. During the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979–88, Soviet Air Force Tu-95 carried out several mass air raids in various regions of that country.