First and Second World Wars was designed by
Igor Sikorsky as the first ever
airliner, but it was turned into a bomber by the
Imperial Russian Air Force. The
first strategic bombing efforts took place during
World War I (1914–18), by the
Russians with their
Sikorsky Ilya Muromets bomber (the first heavy four-engine aircraft), and by the
Germans using
Zeppelins or long-range multi-engine
Gotha aircraft. Zeppelins reached
England on bombing raids by 1916, forcing the British to create extensive defense systems including some of the first
anti-aircraft guns which were often used with searchlights to highlight the enemy machines overhead. Late in the war,
American fliers under the command of Brig. Gen.
Billy Mitchell were developing multi-aircraft "mass" bombing missions behind German lines, although the
Armistice ended full realization of what was being planned. Study of strategic bombing continued in the interwar years. Many books and articles predicted a fearful prospect for any future war, paced by political fears such as those expressed by
British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin who told the
House of Commons early in the 1930s that "
the bomber will always get through" no matter what defensive systems were undertaken. It was widely believed by the late 1930s that
strategic "terror" bombing of cities in any
war would quickly result in devastating losses and might decide a conflict in a matter of days or weeks. But theory far exceeded what most air forces could actually put into the air. Germany focused on short-range tactical bombers.
Britain's
Royal Air Force began developing four-engine long-range bombers only in the late 1930s. The
U.S. Army Air Corps (
Army Air Forces as of mid-1941) was severely limited by small budgets in the late 1930s, and only barely saved the
B-17 bomber that would soon be vital. The equally important
B-24 first flew in 1939. Both aircraft would constitute the bulk of the bomber force for
USAAF strategic bombing in Europe and
Allied day bomber units more generally. At the start of
World War II, so-called "strategic" bombing was initially carried out by
medium bomber aircraft which were typically twin-engined, armed with several defensive guns, but only possessed limited
bomb-carrying capacity and
range. Both
Britain and the
US were developing larger two- and four-engined designs, which began to replace or supplement the smaller aircraft by 1941–42. After American entry into the war in December 1941, the U.S.
8th Air Force began to develop a
daylight bombing capacity using improved
B-17 and
B-24 four-engine aircraft. In order to assemble the formations to carry out these bombing campaigns,
assembly ships were used to quickly form defensive
combat boxes. The
RAF concentrated its efforts on night bombing. But neither force was able to develop adequate
bombsights or tactics to allow for often-bragged "pinpoint" accuracy. The post-war U.S.
Strategic Bombing Survey studies supported the overall notion of strategic bombing, but underlined many of its shortcomings as well. Attempts to create pioneering examples of "
smart bombs" resulted in the
Azon ordnance, deployed in the
European Theater and
CBI Theater from B-24s. '' in
World War II was the troubled
Heinkel He 177. Following the untimely death of the top German advocate for strategic bombing,
General Walther Wever in early June 1936, the focus of Nazi Germany's
Luftwaffe bomber forces, the so-named
Kampfgeschwader (bomber wings) became the battlefield support of the
German Army as part of the general
Blitzkrieg form of warfare, carried out with both medium bombers such as the
Heinkel He 111, and
Schnellbombers such as the
Junkers Ju 88A. Support for the
Ural bomber project before the start of WW II dwindled after Wever's death, with the only aircraft design that could closely match the Allied bomber force's aircraft – the
Heinkel He 177A, originated in early November 1937, deployed in its initial form in 1941–42, hampered by a
RLM requirement for it to also perform medium-angle
dive bombing, not rescinded until September 1942 – unable to perform either function properly, with a powerplant selection and particular powerplant installation design features on the 30-meter wingspan
Greif, that led to endless problems with engine fires. The trans-Atlantic ranged
Amerika Bomber program started in March 1942 sought to ameliorate the lack of a long-range bomber for the
Luftwaffe, but led only to three
Messerschmitt- and two
Junkers-built prototypes ever flying, and no operational "heavy bombers" for strategic use for the Third Reich beyond the roughly one thousand He 177s built. By the end of the Second World War in 1945, the "heavy" bomber, epitomized by the British
Avro Lancaster and American
Boeing B-29 Superfortress used in the
Pacific Theater, showed what could be accomplished by
area bombing of Japan's cities and the often small and dispersed factories within them. Under Major General
Curtis LeMay, the U.S.
20th Air Force, based in the
Mariana Islands, undertook low-level
incendiary bombing missions, results of which were soon measured in the number of square miles destroyed. The
air raids on Japan had withered the nation's ability to continue fighting, although the Japanese government delayed surrender until
atomic bombs were dropped on
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in August 1945.
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
mutually 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 British produced three different "
V bombers" for the
Royal Air Force which were designed and designated to be able to deliver British-made nuclear bombs to targets in European Russia. These bombers would have been able to reach and destroy cities such as Kiev or Moscow before American strategic bombers. While they were never used against the Soviet Union or its allies, two V bomber types, the
Avro Vulcan and the
Handley Page Victor, were used in the
Falklands War towards the end of their operational lives. The Soviet Union produced hundreds of unlicensed copies of the American
Boeing B-29 Superfortress, which the
Soviet Air Forces called the
Tupolev Tu-4. The Soviets later developed the
jet-powered
Tupolev Tu-16 "Badger". The People's Republic of China produced a version of
Tupolev Tu-16 on license from the Soviet Union in the 1960s, which they named the
Xian H-6. During the 1960s 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, using French-made bombers and
IRBMs to deliver French-made
nuclear weapons. Mirage IVs served until mid-1996 in the bomber role, and to 2005 as
reconnaissance aircraft. The French Republic limited its strategic armaments to a squadron of four
nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, with 16
SLBM tubes apiece. France also maintains an active force of supersonic
fighter-bombers carrying
ASMP stand-off nuclear
missiles, with
Mach 3 speed and a range of 500 kilometers. These missiles can be delivered by the
Dassault Mirage 2000N and
Rafale fighter-bombers; the Rafale is also capable of
refueling others in flight using a
buddy refueling pod.
B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. Newer strategic bombers such as the
Rockwell B-1 Lancer, the
Tupolev Tu-160, and the
Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit designs incorporate various levels of
stealth technology in an effort to avoid detection, especially by
radar networks. Despite these advances earlier strategic bombers, for example the
B-52 last manufactured in 1962 and the
Tupolev Tu-95, remain in service and can also deploy the latest air-launched
cruise missiles and other "
stand-off" or
precision guided weapons such as the
JASSM and the
JDAM. The
Russian Air Force's new
Tu-160M2 strategic bombers are expected to be delivered on a regular basis over the course of 10 to 20 years. The
Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers will be periodically updated, as was done during the 1990s with the
Tu-22M bombers. Strategic bombers of the
Cold War were primarily armed with nuclear weapons. During the post-1940s
Indochina Wars, and also since the end of the Cold War, modern bombers originally intended for
strategic use have been exclusively employed using
non-nuclear,
high explosive weapons. During the
Vietnam War,
Operation Menu,
Operation Freedom Deal,
Gulf War,
military action in Afghanistan, and the
2003 invasion of Iraq, American B-52s and B-1s were mostly employed in
tactical roles. During the
Soviet-Afghan war in 1979–88,
Soviet Air Forces Tu-22Ms carried out several
mass air raids in various regions of
Afghanistan. , the
United States Air Force is the largest operator with 130 strategic bombers in active service, between the
B-52 Stratofortress,
B-1 Lancer, and
Northrop B-2 Spirit. The
Russian Air Force is second with 119 bombers between its
Tu-95,
Tu-22M, and
Tu-160. ==Notable strategic bombers==