It depicts a number of cannon configurations that can be stowed in a B-1Bs weapons bays and extended down outside of those bays for use.Our good friend and marvelous patent sleuth Stephen Trimble of Flightglobal.com was the first to find the patent.The cannons are shown mounted in various manners with elaborate mechanisms that allow them to tuck neatly inside the B-1B.
The other shows a few variants of a semi-recessed mounting configuration where the guns drop down into a semi-recessed fairing installed on the belly of the aircraft and are fired sideways from that position. One drawing even shows two different sizes of cannons mounted on the same turret side-by-side. The patents description directly refers to using the guns for close air support and ground attack. It also seems fairly clear that these concepts could be applied to any aircraft with a voluminous weapons bay, not just the B-1B. ![]() These include the ability to go supersonic while toting around such weapons, increased range, better maneuverability and overall performance, and most interestingly, stealth. Although stealthy transport and tanker aircraft have been and remain attractive concepts to the Pentagon, the B-1B is now slated to retire by around 2035. Although very complex and costly to operate, the jet is fast, has considerable range, is built to penetrate enemy air defenses at low altitude, and has a degree of low-observability (stealth) baked into its design. With that in mind, maybe Boeing will one day pitch a B-1B gunship in an effort to save a number of the aircraft from retirement. In addition, some of the designs put forward in this patent could also be adapted to field directed energy weaponsas in lasersin the not so distant future. The B-1B has always been eyed as a platform for a surrogate for such a weapon, even in pop-culture. In fact, in a recent interview, Tom Palenske, commander of the 1st Special Operations Wing, described how a tactical laser would be used just as we did a couple years ago, with Military.com Oriana Pawlyk writing. Palenske said the laser will be the ultimate ace in the hole, making disabling other weapons systems easier. If youre flying along and your mission is to disable an airplane or a car, like when we took down Noriega back in the day, now as opposed to sending a Navy SEAL team to go disable aircraft on the ground, you make a pass over that thing with an airborne laser, and burn a hole through its engine, he said. Palenske was referring to Operation Nifty Package to capture and remove Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega from power in 1989, during which a SEAL team disabled his aircraft so he couldnt escape. And you just keep going on, and theres no noise, no fuss, nobody knows it happened. They dont know the things broken until they go and try to fire it up, he said. Navy, so you never know exactly where these patents could end up or if there is a hard plan in place for them at the time of their granting. When it comes to adding guns to an aircraft like this, much more goes into it than mechanical storage and employment concepts and there are certainly developmental pitfalls along the way. ![]() But B-1B gunships Who cant hope for that, even if in an adolescent kind of way Update: 6:45pm PST The precision night striker B-57G also explored a somewhat similar concept under the PAVE GAT program, here is video of it in action.
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