http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/40262341

Bomber options for replacing B-52s

To deter a nuclear attack against this country and its allies, the United States maintains a strategic force of land-based missiles (ICBMs) submarine-based missiles (SLBMs) and bombers. The bomber leg of this "triad" primarily consists of about 343 B-52 bombers operated by the Strategic Air Command (SAC). Many believe that by 1990, the B-52's vulnerability to improving Soviet air defenses will imperil its effectiveness as a penetrating bomber. There is strong sentiment in Congress and in the Department of Defense to replace the B-52s before that time. The FY81 Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 9E-342) directed the Secretary of Defense to develop a "multi-role bomber" for initial deployment by 1987. Candidate aircraft were to include the B-1, a derivative of the B-1, the FB-111B/C, and an advanced technology aircraft, which would incorporate "Stealth." Months before the choice of aircraft was announced, the new Reagan Administration added $2.4 billion to the FY82 defense budget, to initiate a bomber procurement and research and development program called Long Range Combat Aircraft (LRCA) In a long-awaited announcement on Oct. 2, 1981, President Reagan designated a modified B-1 -- also known as the B-1B -- as the aircraft to be built for LRCA. This decision reverses the policy of the Carter Administration, which was to forego the B-1, initially in favor of Air-Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCM), and then, during the 1980 campaign, in favor of a "Stealth" bomber in the future.

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