The Quest for an Advanced Manned Strategic Bomber: USAF Plans and Policies 1961-1966

The Quest for an Advanced Manned Strategic Bomber: USAF Plans and Policies 1961-1966, is an account of the USAF effort to find a replacement for the B-52 and, though with lesser urgency, the B-58. Although three successive Chiefs of Staff, Generals Thomas D. White, Curtis E. LeMay and John P. McConnell, have given top priority to this effort, the Air Force has not yet obtained permission to develop an advanced manned bomber. Instead, it has received approval for a bomber version of the F-111 to replace the older model B-52's.This study examines the principal manned bomber programs in progress between 1961 and 1966. One section, therefore, is devoted to each of three undertakings: the B-70, a supersonic, high-altitudebomber that was completed as an experimental type; the advanced manned strategic aircraft, judged technologically less ambitious than the B-70 but better able to penetrate enemy defenses;and the FB-111, which the Air Force considers an interim bomber, adequate to replace the B-52C through B-52F. The last section also treats the planned phase out of the older B-52's and the B-58's and recounts Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara's views on the role of the manned bomber.