Delete comment from: Elements Of Power
Finally, just because you are argumentative:
RE: -- Ref the B-70, it's first flight was 5 years after the Atlas and about 3 years after the Titan II, so ICBMs were hardly a surprise that cancelled the program. Your thesis that ICBMs invalidated manned bombers also fails when the later B-1 and B-2 are considered
My ‘thesis’ was not that ICBMs ‘invalidated’ manned bombers (which if you knew ANYTHING about me you would have found such an idea ludicrous.
I stated: “ ICBMs killed the B-70 and Navaho (and Snark BTW).”
There is NO assertion or indication in that statement that ICBMs came after the B-70-- only that their capabilities were chosen OVER those of the B-70
If we are to narrow the statement down to just the B-70, I would only add ‘in conjunction with the existing competency of the B-52’.
RE: I also believe the history is that Kennedy and McNamara cancelled the B-70 over the objections of Lemay and you gloss over the revolt of the admirals as well in protest of the B-36. So much for consensus and the idea that everything was cancelled from within DoD.
Again, ‘a strawman’. Nowhere do I indicate/assert that everything was cancelled only from within DoD. I must assume from what I’ve written so far that that this strawman arises from my statement:
“And it should be noted not one of these programs died because of ignorami carping or second-guessing on the sidelines, but by the defense establishment itself for 'best defense' policy reasons.”
The ‘defense establishment’ by any definition (past and present) that I have ever seen INCLUDES the SecDef office and the Commander In Chief (President). The McNamara/B-70 incident and the Revolt of the Admirals therefore all occurred within the defense establishment, up to the point that the ‘Navy’ took their squealing outside the DoD. (BTW: the real reason behind the revolt was some in the Navy resented subordination to a higher HQ (DoD) , and NOT over an aircraft carrier.
Apr 22, 2012, 2:02:15 AM
Posted to The B-52 Turns 60: What IF? (Part 3)